After nearly six months on the International Space Station, NASA astronaut and Cockeysville native Reid Wiseman returned to Earth Sunday night.
Wiseman, Alexander Gerst of Germany and Maksim Surayev of Russia landed in the Soyuz capsule at 10:58 p.m. ET in north central Kazakhstan, where it was 23 degrees and windy with thick clouds and fog.
The weather temporarily delayed helicopters on their way to extract the astronauts from the capsule.
A NASA live-stream of the landing reported that the capsule had made a "flawless descent," then was tipped on its side by one of its parachutes. The three were extracted from it and bundled up in heavy blankets on chairs outside as they underwent medical tests and gave brief interviews. Wiseman retweeted a photo of the crew after they landed.
The three will fly to Kostanay in northern Kazakhstan for medical tests and a welcome back ceremony, and then Wiseman and Gerst will continue onto Scotland before Wiseman returns to NASA in Houston.
Wiseman, who gained more than 300,000 Twitter followers with his breathtaking space photography, could be heard on NASA TV talking on the phone as the medics attended to him, saying "everything is amazingly heavy, but not bad."
Columbia native Terry Virts is scheduled to launch from Kazakhstan in two weeks.
twitter.com/cmcampbell6