The Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, Saturday, April 17, 2021, with Expedition 64 crew members Kate Rubins of NASA, Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos. Rubins, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov returned after 185 days in space having served as Expedition 63-64 crew members onboard the International Space Station. Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP

American, 2 Russians return to Earth from space station

MOSCOW – An American astronaut and two Russians have returned to Earth after six months aboard the International Space Station.

A Soyuz space capsule carrying NASA’s Kate Rubins and Russians Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov landed at 0455 GMT (12:55 a.m. EDT) Saturday in the steppes of Kazakhstan.

Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, said all three were feeling well after they were extracted from the capsule and began reacclimating to the pull of gravity.

The three had arrived at the orbiting laboratory complex on Oct. 14.

There now are seven people aboard the ISS: NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Russians Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov arrived on April 9; Americans Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi, came aboard in November on the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience, the first ISS docking under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

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Kathy Michaels

Kathy Michaels has been an Okanagan-based journalist for more than a decade, working for community papers along the valley and beyond.
She’s won provincial and national awards in business, news and feature writing and says that her love for telling a good story rivals only her fondness for turning a good phrase.
If you have a story that deserves to be told in a thoughtful and compassionate manner, don’t hesitate to reach out.
To reach Kathy call 250-718-0428 or email kmichaels@infonews.ca.

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