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Soyuz MS-16 reentry vehicle with three crew members onboard lands in Kazakhstan

Returning ISS crew evacuated from Soyuz MS-16 reentry vehicle

MOSCOW, October 22. /TASS/. The Soyuz MS-16 spaceship’s reentry vehicle with Roscosmos cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy has landed in the steppe southeast of the city of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan.

Broadcasting was available at the website of Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos.

Ivanishin, Vagner and Cassidy are out of the Soyuz MS-16 spaceship’s reentry vehicle which landed early in Kazakhstan’s steppe. Ivanishin was the first to be evacuated from the capsule.

"Cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy feel well," Roscosmos said on its Twitter account.

The spaceship undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 02:32 Moscow time on Thursday.

The ISS current crew are Russian cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and US astronaut Kathleen Rubins.

A spokesman for the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center told TASS that because of the coronavirus situation Ivanishin and Vagner will be able to see only those of their family members who are not in a risk group and are coronavirus-negative. They will be able to see children under 12 and parents older than 65 "after a period of rehabilitation of five to seven days," the spokesman added.

While on a space mission, Ivanishin and Vagner conducted scientific experiments and took part in efforts to trace an air leak aboard the orbital outpost from August. On October 15, Ivanishin reported to Earth that a probable air leak location had been traced in the inter-section compartment of the Russian Zvezda module thanks to a tea bag. The leak might have been cause by a crack, which was temporarily sealed. The leak will be completely fixed when the Soyuz MS-16 lands, a source in the space industry told TASS.