MOSCOW — A Soyuz craft veered off its designated landing course Sunday, coming down more than 200 miles short of its original destination on the steppes of Kazakhstan. It arrived safely, bringing two Russian cosmonauts and Malaysia's first space traveler back to Earth, officials said.
A computer glitch caused the landing capsule carrying Russians Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov and Malaysian Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor to end up about 210 miles west of the designated site near Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, Russia's Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said.
The craft arrived at 5:36 a.m. - one minute ahead of schedule - and the crew was unharmed, he said.
Russian search and rescue teams quickly located the craft, NASA reported on its Web site. It said all the three crew members were feeling fine.
The spacecraft's descent was unusually steep apparently due to the computer glitch, and the crew was subjected to a higher than normal gravity load, Lyndin said.
Yurchikhin and Kotov were returning home after a six-month stint at the international space station. Sheikh had been at the orbital outpost since Oct. 12.
Russian Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov said space officials and experts "experienced a few tense moments," but added that the crew was in good condition.
"All crew members have been recovered and they are feeling quite well," Perminov said at a news conference at Mission Control.
Alexei Krasnov, the head of the Russian space agency's manned space programs, said an official commission was formed to investigate the glitch.
"It's difficult to immediately name a specific reason behind the problem. We need to do an in-depth analysis," he said.
A similar problem occurred in May 2003 when the crew - Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin and American astronauts Kenneth Bowersox and Donald Pettit - also experienced a steep, off-course landing. It then took salvage crews several hours to locate the spacecraft because of communications problems.
Yurchikhin and Kotov were returning home after a six-month stint at the international space station. Sheikh had been at the orbital outpost since Oct. 12.