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Astronaut Peggy Whitson Returns To Earth After 665 Days

ISS Expedition 50 Lands in Kazakhstan After 173 Days in Space

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.

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson suits up for training

Hugs in space as NASA astronaut, Russian cosmonauts prepare to return to Earth

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov hug their International Space Station crewmates before boarding a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to Earth. Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev closes the hatch of the capsule. NASA, earlier in March, said tensions linked to the war in Ukraine had no impact on ISS operations or the planned return of an American astronaut aboard a Russian capsule later this month. There have been fears that soaring tensions between the United States and Russia over Ukraine could leave the 55-year-old stranded on the outpost. There had been fears that soaring tensions between the United States and Russia over Ukraine could leave the 55-year-old Vande Hei stranded on the outpost. IMAGES

Japanese space tourists return to Earth after 12 days on ISS

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