Three Russian cosmonauts return safely from International Space Station. Details here

Three cosmonauts from Russia on Thursday returned safely from a trip to the International Space Station. At 4:57 p.m (local time) the spacecraft Soyuz MS-21 carrying Sergey Korsakov, Oleg Artemyevand Denis Matveyev, landed at a predetermined location in Kazakhstan's steppes around 150 kilometres (about 90 miles) southeast of Zhezkazgan.

The trio landed at the station in March. Artemyev's third space trip raised his total time in orbit to 561 days. Matveyev and Korsakov both spent 195 days on their maiden missions.

As the spacecraft Soyuz descended under clear skies on a large striped red-and-white parachute, Artemyev reported to Mission Control that all crew members were in good health.


Minutes later, helicopter support crews landed to retrieve the crew.



After a brief post-flight medical examination, the cosmonauts will be taken to the Star City cosmonaut training complex outside of Moscow later that day.

The station is presently operated by European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, Jessica Watkins, and Frank Rubio, and Russian space agency Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin.

FAQ

What is International Space Station?
The International Space Station is the biggest modular space station in low Earth orbit. It is a worldwide collaborative effort involving five space organisations: Roscosmos, NASA, ESA, CSA, and JAXA.

Who exactly is a cosmonaut?
Technically, "astronaut" refers to all human space explorers, regardless of nationality. However, astronauts from Russia or the Soviet Union are commonly referred to as cosmonauts (from the Russian "kosmos", which means "space" and was derived from Greek).