Three astronauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev, and Sergey Korsakov safely returned to Earth on September 29 after completing their mission in orbit.
The Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft landing with parachutes on a steppe in Kazakhstan. (Photo: AP)
The Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft carrying the crew landed smoothly at a designated site on the Zhezkazgan steppe in Kazakhstan, approximately 150 km southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan, at 4:57 PM local time on September 29. Artemyev reported to the Mission Control Center that all members “felt fine.”
The trio of Russian astronauts arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) in March 2022. For Artemyev, this mission marked his third spaceflight, bringing his total time spent in orbit to 561 days. Meanwhile, Matveyev and Korsakov each spent 195 days on their first mission.
As soon as the Soyuz MS-21 landed with parachutes, a support team quickly arrived to assist the astronauts. After a health check, they were flown by helicopter to the Star City astronaut training center in Russia, located outside the capital, Moscow.
Astronaut Oleg Artemyev taking a commemorative photo after returning to Earth. (Photo: AP)
The International Space Station is currently operated by astronauts Samantha Cristoforetti from the European Space Agency; Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, Frank Rubio, and Jessica Watkins from NASA; Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin from the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
Russia and the United States began constructing the space station in the late 1990s. Since then, the ISS has brought together astronauts from around the world to conduct a series of research projects that could ultimately help humanity venture further into outer space.
However, in a statement in July, Roscosmos head Yuri Borisov announced that Russia would withdraw from the ISS after 2024 to focus on building its own orbital station.
