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Added on the 20/12/2021 18:18:28 - Copyright : Euronews EN
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa returns to Earth after 12 days at the International Space Station. Footage from the landing site, around 150 kilometres (90 miles) southeast of the central Kazakhstan town of Zhezkazgan, shows Maezawa, his assistant Yozo Hirano, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin smiling after being helped out of the Soyuz descent module and into evacuation vehicles in freezing, foggy conditions. IMAGES
This is the moment that International crew members of Expedition 50 locked the hatch of their reentry capsule as they prepared to return back to the blue planet. Amazing footage of the final frontier was captured as Russian cosmonauts Andrei Borisenko and Sergei Ryzhikov and NASA Commander Robert Shane Kimbrough completed the process of undocking the capsule from the International Space Station, or ISS, and began the three and a hour journey back to terra firma. The ISS circles above our planet in Low Earth Orbit at a distance of about 250 miles above and can be seen with the naked eye. It is the largest artificial body in orbit and is joint initiative by the space programmes of the United States, Russia, Europe, Canada, and Japan built in order to study space and figure out how humans can live there. Borisenko, Ryzhikov, and Kimbrough successfully landed in Kazakhstan on Monday after undocking from the ISS and undertaking a 3 and a half hour journey back to earth after having spent a total of 173 days in space. All three space travelers are in good health and are being transported to their respective agencies for routine check-ups by medics as well as a small period of rehabilitation for returning to life with gravity. Expedition 50 concluded successfully, albeit with a bit of a bump, when the reentry capsule thumped down onto the wide open Kazakh steppe at around 10:20 GMT, raising quite a bit of dust as it collided with the surface of the earth.
A Soyuz MS-20 capsule undocks from the International Space Station, with Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano onboard, after a 12-day mission. IMAGES
Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, and his assistant Yozo Hirano arrive at the International Space Station, marking Russia's return to space tourism after a decade-long pause that saw the rise of competition from the United States. A NASA livefeed shows the hatch of the Soyuz MS-20 capsule open at 1611 GMT, showing Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin entering the ISS, followed by Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano. IMAGES
A Russian spacecraft carrying a Japanese billionaire docks with the International Space Station, marking the country's return to space tourism after a decade-long pause that saw the rise of competition from the United States. Online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Their journey aboard the three-person Soyuz spacecraft piloted by cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin took just over six hours, capping a banner year that many have seen as a turning point for private space travel. IMAGES
A Russian Soyuz rocket blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in ex-Soviet Kazakhstan on Wednesday carrying a Japanese billionaire to the International Space Station. The rocket carrying online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa, 46, and his assistant took off at 0738 GMT and is scheduled to arrive at the ISS about six hours later at around 1341 GMT. IMAGES