World

NASA Astronaut and Two Russian Cosmonauts Return to Earth

12 of April 2017

Russia's Soyuz MS-02 space capsule carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of Andrei Borisenko and Sergey Ryzhykov of Russia and NASA astronaut Robert Shane Kimbrough lands in a remote area in Kazakhstan, Monday, April 10, 2017,photo: Pool/Kirill Kudryavtsev, via AP

NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Russia's Sergei Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko touched down at 5:20 p.m. local time Monday

MOSCOW – Three astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) have successfully landed in the steppes of Kazakhstan — two from Russia and one from the United States.

NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Russia’s Sergei Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko touched down at 5:20 p.m. local time Monday after spending 173 days in space.

NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, (L), Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos, (C), and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Borisenko of Roscosmos sit in chairs outside the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft a few moments after they landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Monday, April 10, 2017. *Photo: NASA/Bill Ingalls*

NASA’s Peggy Whitson, Russia’s Oleg Novitsky and the European Space Agency’s Thomas Pesquet will operate the orbiting space lab until another crew arrives this weekend.

The 57-year old Whitson was supposed to return to Earth in June but NASA announced last week that she would stay on the space station until September. Whitson has already spent more time in space than any other woman and just last week set a record for the most spacewalks by a woman, with eight.