Three ISS astronauts return to earth in Kazakhstan
October 30, 2016
Three astronauts, Kathleen Rubins of the US, Russia's Anatoly Ivanishin and Takuya Onishi of Japan, landed safely in the steppes of Kazakhstan on Sunday morning at 0358 UTC.
"Landing has taken place!" Russian mission control confirmed as NASA TV noted that the Soyuz craft had landed in an upright position.
They had spent more than four months aboard the International Space Station (ISS).
NASA's Rubins, a molecular biologist, was the first person to sequence DNA in space.
Rubins, Roscosmos' Anatoly Ivanishin and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency landed southeast of the Kazakh steppe town of Zhezkazgan in frosty conditions following a 115-day mission on board the ISS.
As they were brought out of the capsule, live television images showed them happy and enjoying the fresh air.
The ISS space laboratory has been orbiting Earth at about 28,000 kilometres per hour (17,000 miles per hour) since 1998.
jm/ls (Reuters, AFP)