NASA astronaut and 2 Russian cosmonauts return to Earth

MOSCOW – Three astronauts from the International Space Station have successfully landed in the steppes of Kazakhstan — two from Russia and one from the United States.

NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Russia’s Sergei Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko touched down at 5:20 p.m. local time Monday after spending 173 days in space.

NASA’s Peggy Whitson, Russia’s Oleg Novitsky and the European Space Agency’s Thomas Pesquet will operate the orbiting space lab until another crew arrives this weekend.

The 57-year old Whitson was supposed to return to Earth in June but NASA announced last week that she would stay on the space station until September. Whitson has already spent more time in space than any other woman and just last week set a record for the most spacewalks by a woman, with eight.