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Roscosmos to bring US astronaut back to Earth March 30 as scheduled

Earlier, some US media expressed doubts if Russia would agree to take US astronaut Mark Vande Hei back to Earth amid the sanctions imposed on Russia over the situation in Ukraine

MOSCOW, March 14. /TASS/. Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos has never given its partners the slightest chance to doubt its reliability. The US astronaut due to return to Earth soon will do so as scheduled on board Russia’s space capsule vehicle on March 30, the space corporation said on Monday.

Earlier, some US media expressed doubts if Russia would agree to take US astronaut Mark Vande Hei back to Earth amid the sanctions imposed on Russia over the situation in Ukraine.

"US astronaut Mark Vande Hei will travel back home in the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft together with Russia’s Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov on March 30. Roscosmos has never let anybody doubt its reliability as a partner," the Roscosmos’ press-service has said.

The corporation stressed that the ISS crew’s safety has always been its top priority.

Earlier, Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin uploaded to his Telegram channel an extract from a Fox News broadcast claiming that Russia might leave the US astronaut in space.

The Soyuz MS-19 space capsule with Anton Shkaplerov, Pyotr Dubrov and Mark Vande Hei is expected to land on March 30. Dubrov and Vande Hei arrived on the ISS in the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft together with Oleg Novitsky. This descent module brought back to Earth the two feature film crew members - actress Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko, who had arrived on the ISS together with Anton Shkaplerov in the Soyuz MS-19 on October 5.

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