Andrew Gray wrote:

Well, Soyuz are modified on a fairly regular basis - this is only, what,
the sixth TMA version? And it's already had one major anomaly - so some
post-flight research would likely be desirable on most of them.

In addition, you're going to want to gut it for recylable equipment, and
tearing it down is likely to be a lot easier (and cheaper) inside a
hangar somewhere than doing it exposed to the elements out on the
steppes - this way you only have one trip, to cart it back, rather than
having to take all your engineers out and then bring them back, possibly
several times.

Plus, you'll need to salvage any returned material, some of which may
not take kindly to being removed in those conditions.



They've run into problems with the sale of the ISS ones though:
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches...le_020506.html

Pat