Anxiety marks space station crew's belated return to Earth

For the Nasa officials gathered behind computer screens at the Russian space agency's mission control, history must have seemed to be repeating itself for two terrible hours early yesterday.

Rather than the usual applause when a spacecraft returns to Earth, the landing of one Russian and two American astronauts for the first time since the Columbia space shuttle exploded was greeted with deathly silence.

The Soyuz capsule carrying the men, who had been stranded by the tragedy for more than two months on the International Space Station (ISS), had been scheduled to land in the steppes of Kazakhstan at about 6am Moscow time (3am BST).

But as the time arrived and a search party with 15 aircraft and 50 vehicles, including two Nasa surgeons with two helicopter-loads of medical supplies, scoured the barren steppe, there was no sign of the two-metre-high craft.

Minutes before landing time, radio communication with the Soyuz TMA-1 was lost, turning elation at mission control outside Moscow into confusion and deep concern that more lives might have been lost in the name of space exploration.

In the words of Talgat Musabayev, a former cosmonaut and one of the Russian rescue team, the atmosphere was "nervous, nervous." Speaking as Russian officials retired to their offices for a series of frantic meetings while their Nasa colleagues looked on, the understated Mr Musabayev added: "This landing was unusual."

Relief was not apparent for another two and a half hours. A message was sent from a Russian spotter plane that the Soyuz capsule, a previously untried model with new engines and an entry control system, had been found about 290 miles south-west of its target. The three crew – mission commander Kenneth Bowersox, fellow American Donald Pettit and their Russian colleague Nikolai Budarin – were waving from outside.

The capsule had been tipped on its side and dragged for 40 metres when it touched down in wilderness north of the Aral Sea.

The landing was the first by American astronauts on foreign soil in a foreign craft. Nasa officials at Russian mission control could not disguise their satisfaction at the outcome. Allard Beutel, who had watched proceedings, said: "We are all very happy. It just took a little longer than anticipated."

Mr Bowersox hinted at the drama of the previous hours when he arrived in the Kazakh capital, Astana. "The crew are doing great. What we carried out was a test flight."

Experts said that the capsule, an updated but still cramped version of the craft used by Yuri Gagarin to become the first man in space in 1961, had apparently landed on a steeper trajectory than anticipated.

The sharp descent, during which the three men experienced a G-force of nine, significantly above the planned level of seven, was also blamed for knocking out the craft's locator beacon.

Yuri Koptev, head of the Russian space agency, said: "We very often get used to the idea that everything will work as normal. But space is a new horizon – the most important thing is a happy ending so the crew can walk around the capsule after landing and pick tulips."

The three men of Expedition Six to the ISS had spent nearly six months in orbit on a mission to conduct experiments including an investigation into "the structure of paramagnetic aggregates from colloidal emulsions".

Their stay in the $98bn (£65bn) station was extended by two months after the Columbia disaster on 1 February led to the cancellation of all space shuttle flights. They had been due to return in March on board the shuttle Atlantis. Instead, the Americans were left relying on the Russians to maintain the space station and provide an essential transport service for ISS personnel – although not without taking maximum precautions. Among the equipment and personnel sent by Nasa to Kazakhstan to accompany the Russian searchers was a defibrillator, heart monitor and trauma and resuscitation equipment as well as the two surgeons and a US Air Force medical team.

Before the landing, Dr J D Polk, one of the surgeons, summed up Nasa's anxiety at the risk of any more casualties in space travel when he said: "We just don't have any acceptance for any risk right now."

The three ISS crewmen were replaced last week by a new slimmed-down team of one astronaut and one cosmonaut who will spend six months on board ISS.

Programme chiefs hope that when they are ready to leave in November, they will use the more spacious surroundings of an American shuttle if the Nasa fleet is once more cleared for lift-off.

If not, the Soyuz TMA-1 that the new crew arrived in has been kept in place – possibly with its guidance system tweaked – as an "emergency lifeboat".