Post Landing Audio Interview With Peggy Whitson Released

Audio file

Editor's note: According to NASA HQ Public Affairs: "this is an audio file of Peggy Whitson's interview with NASA Public Affairs Officer Rob Navias recorded soon after her landing aboard the Soyuz on Saturday. During the interview, Whitson states that some rescuers were there because of a fire. For clarification, the Soyuz capsule landed near an area where Kazak farmers were burning grass off the steppes. The fire was not related to the Soyuz landing."

Despite multiple questions from the media as to what was reported by the crew and others about the Soyuz reentry, no mention was made by NASA personnel of this JSC PAO interview during a media telecon earlier today. Subsequently, NASA HQ PAO promptly released the original JSC audio after multiple media requests were submitted for this audio.

NASA not worried about Soyuz space capsule's bumpy ride home, AP

"Saturday's bone-jarring landing happened after the capsule went into an unplanned ballistic re-entry. The Russians thought they had solved the descent problem after it cropped up last October and NASA agreed with their original analysis that a frayed wire was to blame, Gerstenmaier said."

- NASA Official Plays Down a Troubled Soyuz Landing, NY Times
- Soyuz spacecraft safe despite botched landing: NASA, Reuters
- A Scary Return to Earth, Washington Post
- Did a short circuit cause spacecraft's steep descent?, New Scientist