Russia

Three astronauts return from International Space Station

cde.news desk 17 April 2021, 09:16 · 1 min read

epa09140754 A handout picture made available by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) shows Expedition 64 Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov gesturing outside the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft after he, Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, 17 April 2021. Rubins, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov returned after 185 days in space having served as Expedition 63-64 crew members onboard the International Space Station. EPA-EFE/Bill Ingalls / HANDOUT MANDATORY CREDIT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Three members of the International Space Station’s crew returned safely to Earth on Saturday on a Russian Soyuz craft, Russia’s Roscosmos space agency reported.

The Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft carrying NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, a microbiologist who in 2016 became the first person to sequence DNA in space, and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov landed in Kazakhstan at 0455 GMT.

The three had been at the space station since mid-October 2020.

Their mission was the last scheduled Russian flight carrying a U.S. crew member, marking an end to a long dependency as the U.S. revives its own crew launch capability in an effort to drive down the cost of sending astronauts to space.

(Reporting by Andrey Ostroukh. Editing by Mark Potter)

Filed under Russia Space

Topics International Space Station Soyuz

Three astronauts return from International Space Station

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