The latest crew returning to Earth from ISS had a bit of a rough ride. For reasons not yet clear, their Soyuz took a steeper re'entry angle than normal, subjecting the three people inside to up to 10 times normal Earth gravity at times. The Soyuz also missed its targeted landing area by 280 miles. All aboard, however, seem fine.
Before the space shuttle, American capsules occasionally missed their landing areas by wide margins, and this is by no means the first Soyuz to do so. Flying a craft from orbit to a dead stick landing on a specific runway may be the most impressive advance of the shuttle program, providing a glimpse of what will be possible at some point in the future. The next manned NASA spacecraft, however, will be a capsule design. Misses of landing sites by many miles will again be a routine possibility for NASA.
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