Return Flight
At the end of the mission, Yi returned to Earth along with ISS crew members Peggy Whitson and Yuri Malenchenko aboard Soyuz TMA-11, on April 19, 2008. The craft followed a ballistic re-entry, which typically subjects the crew to extreme force. The re-entry into Earth's atmosphere was a steeper than usual descent, thus subjecting the crew to severe gravitational forces at up to 10 times the amount experienced on Earth. As a result of the re-entry, the TMA-11 craft used in the return flight landed 260 miles (420 km) off-course from its target in Kazakhstan. All three survived, although requiring observation by medical personnel.
Yi was hospitalized after her return to Korea due to severe back pains. Though many believed these pains were the result of the rough landing, they were in fact normal and expected. They were the result of spinal re-compression.
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Famous quotes containing the words return and/or flight:
“Lise: Look, monsieur, I don’t know what type of girl you think I am, but I’m not. And now I would like to return to my friends.
Jerry: I thought you were bored with them. You sure looked it.
Lise: You should see me now.
Jerry: Ouch.”
—Alan Jay Lerner (1918–1986)
“It is marvelous indeed to watch on television the rings of Saturn close; and to speculate on what we may yet find at galaxy’s edge. But in the process, we have lost the human element; not to mention the high hope of those quaint days when flight would create “one world.” Instead of one world, we have “star wars,” and a future in which dumb dented human toys will drift mindlessly about the cosmos long after our small planet’s dead.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)