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Russian spacecraft with ISS crew lands in Kazakh steppe

The crew of the long-term Expedition 55/56 have returned to the Earth

© Alexander Riumin/TASS, archive

KOROLYOV /Moscow Region/, October 4. /TASS/. The descent capsule of the Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft with three crewmembers of the International Space Station (ISS) has landed in the Kazakh steppe near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Russia’s Mission Control reported on Thursday.

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"The landing has been accomplished. The descent vehicle with Roscosmos [Russian State Space Agency] cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronauts Richard Arnold and Andrew Feustel landed at 14:45 Moscow time," the Flight Control Center said.

The spacecraft undocked from the ISS at 10:57 a.m. Moscow time.

The crewmembers of the long-term Expedition 55/56 have returned to Earth on Space Troops’ Day celebrated in Russia on October 4 to commemorate the launch of the Earth’s first artificial satellite in 1957.

The crew comprising Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergei Prokopyev, US astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor and German astronaut Alexander Gerst will continue working on the orbital outpost. On October 11, the next expedition comprising Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin and US astronaut Nick Hague will set off aboard a Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan for the world’s sole orbiter.

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