A Soyuz Capsule Returns to Earth—With a Flash

Yesterday , the Soyuz TMA-15 M space vehicle brought three astronauts safely back to Earth . This look-alike capture the ejector seat as it set down , but do n’t occupy : the flame are helping relent the landing place and not a signaling of bad news .

The chute used to slow the Soyuz capsules as they return to Earth cope to shrink the speed of the craftiness to 24 feet per second . That ’s still too libertine for a comfortable landing place , so there are six little engine on the bottom which are burn down one second before touchdown to damp the landing place . This icon captures that accurate second .

The engines allow Expedition 43 commander Terry Virts of NASA , cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency , and Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti from European Space Agency a ( comparatively ) comfortable landing near the town of Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan . [ NASA ]