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Two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut are safely again on Earth after spending eight months aboard the Worldwide House Station.
Soyuz MS-27 crewmates Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky of the Russian federal house company Roscosmos, together with Jonny Kim of NASA landed on the chilly, snow-flurry-covered steppe of Kazakhstan on Tuesday (Dec. 9). The spacecraft, descending underneath a parachute and cushioned by braking thrusters met the bottom at 12:03 a.m. EST (0503 GMT or 10:03 a.m. native time).
Ryzhikov and Kim appeared to be in fantastic situation and in good spirits. Zubritsky was taken instantly from the Soyuz to an inflatable medical tent.
“Congratulations on yet one more finish of a Soyuz automobile journey. Expedition 73, all duties full,” mentioned Ryzhikov after the touchdown. “The crew are feeling nice.”
The cosmonauts and astronaut will subsequent be flown by helicopter to Karaganda, Kazakhstan, the place the restoration groups are primarily based. Kim will then board a NASA plane and be transported to Houston, whereas Ryzhikov and Zubritsky will depart for the Gagarin Cosmonaut Coaching Heart in Star Metropolis, Russia.
Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim’s journey again to Earth started on Monday, as they boarded and undocked their Soyuz from the station’s Prichal module. Their departure at 8:41 p.m. EST (0141 GMT Tuesday) marked the formal finish of Expedition 73 and the start of Expedition 74.
“What I feel I will bear in mind most is the bond that we shared collectively, and after having spent eight months in house, I firmly imagine that the best high quality of an astronaut and a human just isn’t technical competence or loyalty or any of the myriad of the issues that we Prefer to ascribe to astronauts, it is love,” mentioned Kim throughout a short change of command ceremony on Sunday. “I firmly imagine that love is the best factor an astronaut can have for one another and for the people who they work with and for our pretty planet.”
“I feel that is what we completed right here — we all the time gave one another grace and had a lot love for one another and for the bottom, for everybody that helps us, and I feel that’s what makes house exploration attainable and human,” mentioned Kim.
Nonetheless aboard the house station because the newly-formed Expedition 74 crew are commander Mike Fincke and fellow NASA astronauts Zena Cardman and Chris Williams, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Platonov, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev.
Kud-Sverchkov, Mikaev and Williams arrived in late November, on a Soyuz launch that left Russia’s solely launch pad able to supporting flights to the station considerably broken.
Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim, throughout their 245 days in low Earth orbit, performed a whole lot of science investigations and know-how demonstrations, in addition to contributed to the maintenance of the station and oversaw the arrival and departure of uncrewed cargo ships, together with the primary upgraded spacecraft from Northrop Grumman (Cygnus XL) and JAXA (HTV-X).
Ryzhikov and Zubritsky additionally performed two spacewalks to put in scientific experiments and relocate a controller for the European Robotic Arm on the outside of the Russian section of the station.
Ryzhikov, 51, was the one veteran on the Soyuz MS-27 crew and has now reached a complete time in house that solely 12 different individuals in historical past have exceeded.
“Now [that] I am commander, my very first thing to do is to have fun one thing,” mentioned Fincke on Sunday (Dec. 7). “At present is the sixtieth anniversary of Gemini 7, and that was a giant deal for the American house program. They had been going to go on a extremely lengthy length mission of 14 days. And amongst us right here, we now have a person who’s flown for 600 days in house.”
Ryzhikov, who’s a colonel within the Russian Air Power, beforehand served on the Expedition 50 and Expedition 64 crews in 2017 and 2021, respectively.
Zubritsky, 33, was the 630th particular person to fly into Earth orbit, in keeping with the Registry of House Vacationers maintained by the Affiliation of House Explorers. Kim, 41, who impressed memes given his prior careers as a U.S. Navy SEAL and medical physician, was the 631st particular person to orbit Earth. (Ryzhikov turned quantity 548 when he launched on his first flight in 2016.)
Soyuz MS-27 was Russia’s 73rd spacecraft in its class to launch for the station since 2000 and the 156th Soyuz to fly since 1967.
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