Three astronauts return to Earth after months on Space Station


Reuters | Published: April 17, 2021 14:51:44 | Updated: April 19, 2021 17:31:57


The International Space Station (ISS) crew members Kathleen Rubins of NASA, Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos pose for a picture after landing with the Soyuz MS-17 space capsule in a remote area outside Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on April 17, 2021 — NASA handout via 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 US crew member, marking an end to a long dependency as the US revives its own crew launch capability in an effort to drive down the cost of sending astronauts to space.

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