U.s.-russian Space Station Crew Lands In Kazakhstan After An 8-month Stint

MOSCOW — A U.S.-Russian abstraction unit landed safely successful nan steppes of Kazakhstan connected Sunday aft an eight-month stint connected nan International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Russian crewmates Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev touched down successful their Soyuz MS-28 that landed smoothly by parachute successful a designated area southeast of Dzhezkazgan.

Their 241-day stint connected nan orbiting outpost was nan first abstraction ngo for Williams and Mikaev and nan 2nd for Kud‑Sverchkov.

The unit was to beryllium flown by chopper to Karaganda, wherever Williams would committee a level to return to NASA’s Johnson Space Center successful Houston, while Kud‑Sverchkov and Mikaev were group to alert to their training guidelines successful Star City, extracurricular Moscow.

Once bitter rivals successful nan abstraction title during nan Cold War, Russia and nan U.S. cooperate connected nan abstraction position and different projects. That narration was strained by tensions aft Russia invaded Ukraine successful 2022, but Washington and Moscow person continued to activity together crossed 2 U.S. administrations, pinch U.S. and Russian crews flying to nan orbiting outpost connected each country’s spacecraft.

The returning group has been replaced by a unit of NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina, who arrived July 14 astatine nan International Space Station for an eight-month ngo aft launching earlier that time from nan Russia-leased Baikonur cosmodrome successful Kazakhstan.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman attended nan launch, nan first sojourn to Baikonur by a NASA main successful 8 years.

The recently arrived trio person joined NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev arsenic portion of Expedition 75.