Moscow Three Russian cosmonauts have safely landed back on Earth after spending around 200 days at the International Space Station (ISS).
Oleg Artemyev, Sergey Korsakov and Denis Matveev travelled with the Soyuz capsule from the ISS on Thursday and landed a few hours later in the steppes of central Kazakhstan, as seen in live pictures from US space agency NASA.
On Wednesday, Artemyev handed over command of the ISS to Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, the first European woman to fill the role. Also aboard the ISS are NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren and Jessica Watkins. Last week, they were joined by cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin as well as NASA astronaut Frank Rubio.
Next week, the station will become even more crowded.
The ‘Crew 5’ made up of NASA astronauts Nicole Aunapu Mann and Josh Cassada, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and Russian cosmonaut Anna Kikina are to launch the Crew Dragon rocket to the ISS to join the others. The launch has been delayed until Tuesday the earliest, due to Hurricane Ian battering Florida. (dpa)
