Five professional astronauts and an American visitor to the International Space Station (ISS) expressed grief Thursday for those killed and wounded during a student gunman'sattack at Virginia Tech this week.

"All of us on the International Space Station are deeply saddened by the tragic news from Virginia Tech University," U.S. space tourist Charles Simonyi, who is due to return to Earth Saturday with the outpost's homecoming crew aboard a Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft, wrote in his Web site blog. "We may be many miles away physically but our hearts are with the students, their families and university communities everywhere and we are grieved by the lives and contributions that have been cut short. Our thoughts and prayers"

Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin and Spaceflight Participant Charles Simonyi are back on Earth. They landed safely southwest of Karaganda, Kazakhstan at 8:31 a.m. EDT. (1231 GMT)

Back on the station is Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams. Williams had been a member ofExpedition 14 since December. She will remain with Expedition 15 until this summer.

Expedition 15 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Oleg Kotovlaunched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on April 7.

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Well i wonder if charles got the radio reprogrammed?