The Russian spacecraft Soyuz MS-26 returned to Earth today with three cosmonauts on board, two Russians, Alexei Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, and one American, Don Pettit, according to the Russian Flight Control Center (CCV).
Landing took place at 01:20 GMT on Sunday, less than 150 kilometers southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan, in the Kazakh steppe, less than four hours after the undocking of the Russian Rassvet module from the International Space Station (ISS).
Pettit, who this time was on the station for 222 days, totaling 590 days since his baptism as an astronaut, returned to our planet on his 70th birthday.
Meanwhile, Ovchinin - 595 days in orbit - handed over command of the orbital platform to Japan's Takuya Onishi on Friday during a traditional ceremony.
The expedition, which returned safely to Earth, arrived at the station in September last year, where ten people stayed to live.
Recently, Soyuz MS-27, crewed by Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexei Zubritsky and NASA astronaut Jonathan Kim, successfully docked with the space station.
Russian Kiril Peskov, Americans Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers and Japanese Onishi, all members of the 72nd expedition, will remain on the platform for a longer period.
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