The landing of Soyuz TMA-10M manned spacecraft with Oleg Kotov, Sergey Ryazansky (Roscosmos) and Michael Hopkins (NASA) onboard was shifted from March 12 to March 11. Tha place of lamding was also changed because of great amount of snow in Arkalyk region where descent module was initially planned to land, – Roscosmos manned Programs Department Head Alexey Krasnov reported.
Originally we considered the Northern region of landing near Arkalyk city. But the snow cover there amounts to about 3 meters, – he said. – No helicopter is able to land under such conditions and moreover how we’ll look for the descent module under such snow cover. That’s why we decided to relocate the landing to the Southern region near Zhezkazgan city.
Due to that fact Soyuz TMA-10M crew will return to the Earth a day earlier – on March 11. The date is firm and is not to be changed anymore”, – Krasnov added.
In his turn Mission Control Centre representative confirmed this information and specified that Soyuz TMA-10M undocking from Poisk module of the ISS is planne for March 11, 4.03 Moscow time and the landing itself is schedule for 07.26.
