Soyuz capsule returns to Earth, bringing home 2 Russians, 1 American
The Brief
Soyuz capsule lands safely in Kazakhstan, returning two Russians and one American from ISS.
Crew spent 220 days in space, completing 3,520 Earth orbits; Pettit turned 70 on landing day.
Postlanding checks underway; astronauts head to Houston and Star City for recovery.
MOSCOW - A Soyuz capsule that carried two Russians and one American from the International Space Station landed Sunday in Kazakhstan, ending their seven-month research assignment.
According to Russian space agency Roscosmos, the capsule carrying Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner and astronaut Don Pettit of U.S. space agency NASA landed on the Kazakh steppe near the city of Zhezkazgan at 6:20 a.m. Roscosmos said the parachute-assisted landing was a trouble-free descent.
The trio returned after spending 220 days in space and orbiting the Earth 3,520 times, NASA said in a statement. The agency noted that, coincidentally, Pettit celebrated his 70th birthday on Sunday.
NASA said it was following its routine postlanding medical checks, and that the crew will return to the recovery staging area in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Pettit will then board a NASA plane bound for the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston, while Roscosmos said Ovchinin and Vagner will depart for a training base in Star City, Russia.
On Friday, Ovchinin handed over command of the ISS to Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi in a change of command ceremony.
The Source
The Associated Press contributed to this report. The information in this story comes primarily from official statements by the Russian space agency Roscosmos and the U.S. space agency NASA. This story was reported from Los Angeles.
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