US-Russian space crew return to Earth after eight months on the International Space Station
NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Russian crewmates Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev landed safely in Kazakhstan
Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft lands in a remote area near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.
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A US-Russian crew returned to Earth from the International Space Station early Sunday morning after 241 days on the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Russian crewmates Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev touched down in their Soyuz spacecraft at 6:27 am EDT (10:27 GMT).3 hours and 24 minutes earlier, their Soyuz, known as MS-28, undocked from the orbiting lab, which landed smoothly by parachute in a designated area southeast of Dzhezkazgan, on the steppe of Kazakhstan.Their stint on the orbiting outpost, which began on November 27, was the first space mission for Williams and Mikaev and the second for Kud‑Sverchkov.Read more: Trump is giving Iran talks 'a little bit of room,' as Tehran says it will 'halt strikes' as long as pause in attacks continues
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The crew held a change-of-command ceremony on Saturday morning at the International Space Station (ISS), where Kud‑Sverchkov handed over command of the orbiting lab to NASA astronaut Jessica Meir. During the ISS Expedition 74, the trio had orbited Earth 3,856 times and travelled more than 102 million miles (164 million kilometres).Back on Earth, the astronauts were flown by helicopter to Karaganda, in Kazakhstan, where recovery teams were based. Williams will then return to NASA's Johnson Space Centre in Houston, while Kud‑Sverchkov and Mikaev will head back to their training base in Star City, just outside Moscow.
The Expedition 74 astronauts inside the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft after they landed in Kazakhstan.
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Despite space race rivalries during the Cold War and the war in Ukraine, Russia and the US continue to work together on the ISS, with their crews flying to the orbiting outpost on each country’s spacecraft.The new crew of NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina arrived at the ISS for an eight-month mission after launching from the Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 14.The trio have joined Meir, NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev as part of Expedition 75.
