MOSCOW (AP) — A Soyuz capsule carrying two Russians and an American from the International Space Station landed in Kazakhstan on Monday, ending the Russian couple’s record-breaking stay.
The capsule landed on a Kazakh field about three and a half hours after separating from the ISS, landing apparently without any problems. In the final stages of the landing, it descended at a speed of about 7.2 meters per second (16 mph) under a red and white parachute, and small rockets were fired at the last second to ease the landing.
The astronauts were to be taken out of the capsule and seated in nearby chairs to help them acclimatize to gravity, then undergo medical examinations in a nearby tent.
Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub returned after 374 days on the space station; on Friday they broke the record for the longest continuous stay there. Also in the capsule was American Tracy Dyson, who stayed on the space station for six months.
Eight astronauts are still aboard the space station, including American citizens Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who are staying there long after their scheduled return to Earth.
They arrived in June as the first crew on Boeing’s new Starliner capsule. But their journey was hampered by thruster problems and helium leaks, and US space agency NASA decided it would be too risky to send them back on the Starliner.
Both astronauts will return home with SpaceX next year.
