Computer error to blame for rapid fall of Soyuz

A computer error is suspected of plunging the three spacemen who returned to Earth on Sunday into a descent that was so steep their tongues rolled back in their mouths and they could hardly breathe.

Their Soyuz spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan, 270 miles from its intended destination. The two US astronauts and one cosmonaut were returning after five months on board the International Space Station. The landing was the first since the Columbia space shuttle disaster in February.

One of the astronauts, Donald Pettit, the sickest and weakest upon return, said he did not mind having a few more hours alone with his crewmates after 161 days together in orbit. He had been warned about the "mob scene" and "hustle and bustle" awaiting him.

"I was actually relieved to ooze out of the spacecraft and lay on Mother Earth and have a solitude moment in which to get reacquainted," Pettit said yesterday.

After landing, all three were crawling for the first one and a half hours, said Nikolai Budarin, who opened the hatch and was the first one out. The transition to gravity was made all the more difficult by the ballistic descent. Pettit, Budarin and their commander, Kenneth Bowersox, withstood more than eight times the force of gravity on the way down, twice the usual amount for a Soyuz and three times that for a shuttle.

Russian space experts believe the problem was caused by software in the guidance computer installed in the new model Soyuz. It was the first time the modified spaceship had been used in re-entry. Nasa has been relying on the Soyuz since the shuttle fleet was grounded.