Flávio Dieguez
Special Report*

Moscow - After landing safely in Kazakshtan at 3:47 am (Russian time on Sunday morning, which was Saturday evening in Brazil) Brazil's first astronaut Marcos Pontes, is now at the Yuri Gagarin Astronaut Training Center, also called Star City, just outside Moscow where he will remain until April 19.

Pontes landed with two other astronauts, the Russian Valery Tokarev, and the American William McArthur, who left the International Space Station after spending six months there. Pontes was in space for eight days. Probably because of the difference in the amount of time they spent in microgravity, doctors said Pontes was in better physical condition upon arrival than the other two astronauts.

The Brazilian astronaut brought with him the experiments he took into space which will be returned to Brazil for evaluation at the Brazilian Space Agency.

Translation: Allen Bennett