American and two Russians return to Earth from space station

An American astronaut and two Russians have returned to Earth after six months aboard the International Space Station.

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A Soyuz space capsule carrying NASA’s Kate Rubins and Russians Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov landed at 0455 GMT (12:55 a.m. EDT) Saturday in the steppes of Kazakhstan.

The Soyuz MS-17 space capsule, carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew members Kathleen Rubins of NASA, Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos, lands in a remote area outside Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan April 17, 2021. (NASA via Reuters)

Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, said all three were feeling well after they were extracted from the capsule and began reacclimating to the pull of gravity.

The three had arrived at the orbiting laboratory complex on Oct. 14.

There now are seven people aboard the ISS: NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Russians Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov arrived on April 9; Americans Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi, came aboard in November on the SpaceX Crew Dragon Resilience, the first ISS docking under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

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