Three astronauts on the International Space Station back to … – ABC Color

Dzhezkazgan. Two Russians and one American astronauts returned to Earth on Thursday aboard the Russian Soyuz space capsule after living six months on the International Space Station (ISS), a research center in Earth orbit.

The Russian Yelena Serova -the first Russian woman to have made an assignment in ISS and Alexander Samokutyaev and American Barry Wilmore landed in Kazakhstan early Thursday . “The expedition team 42 returned to Earth,” said television commentator NASA, Rob Navias, transmitting live landing on the steppe of Dzhezkazgan, in southeastern Kazakhstan.

The Russian space agency Roscosmos confirmed that the crew had “successfully returned to Earth”. “The dropship piloted completed its landing at 05h14 Moscow time (02H14 GMT),” the agency said in a statement.

The Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the space industry, said that all crew members had been recovered and were all in good health. “Everything is in order. The team left the capsule. Okay, “Rogozin wrote on Twitter.

This mission has meant the return of Russian women to space missions, from which they were absent for 17 years. In 2013, Russia had commemorated the 50th anniversary of the first flight of a woman in space, Soviet Valentina Terechkova, on June 16, 1963.

The TV showed the smiling astronauts was extracted from the capsule by a rescue team. The Soyuz spacecraft undocked from the space station at 22:44 GMT, according to the television broadcast of the event, conducted by NASA.

The three had left Earth on September 26 and spent 167 days in space, during which 112 million kilometers traveled around the planet, NASA said. During the stay, the Russian astronauts conducted 50 experiments and did repair work on the space station, said Roscosmos

The next mission, formed by American Scott Kelly and Russian Mikhail Kornienko Gennady Padalka and will be sent to the ISS from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on 28 March. Kelly and Kornienko remain in the research module a full year, instead of the usual six months to “collect biomedical data to prepare long-term manned missions in space,” NASA said.

There are currently three astronauts on the Space Station, Russian Anton Shkaplerov, Samantha Cristoforetti Italian and American Terry Virts. The International Space Station is one of the few areas of cooperation between Russia and the United States that has not been affected by the crisis in Ukraine.

During the six months of the mission, relations between the US and Russia is degraded due to the Ukrainian crisis. However, last month confirmed that Russia will continue using the ISS in collaboration with NASA until 2024. In January 2014, NASA announced the prologanción the life of the ISS until 2024, four years more than provided for the initial agreements. Finally, Russia accepted the US proposal but said that from 2024 will create its own space station to have “guaranteed access to space.”