Three crew members aboard Russia's Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft returned to Earth on Wednesday, TASS news agency reported.
Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei landed outside Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.
Russian space agency Roscosmos broadcast footage of the landing from the Kazakh steppe and said a group of technical and medical specialists had been dispatched to help the astronauts out of the capsule.
ISS crew member and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei rests after landing with the Soyuz MS-19 space capsule in a remote area outside Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, March 30, 2022. /Reuters
Vande Hei, who at 55 is completing his second International Space Station (ISS) mission, will have logged a U.S. space-endurance record of 355 consecutive days in orbit, surpassing the previous 340-day record set by astronaut Scott Kelly in 2016, according to NASA.
ISS crew member and Roscosmos cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov rests after landing with the Soyuz MS-19 space capsule in a remote area outside Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, March 30, 2022. /Reuters
The all-time record for longest single stay in space was set by Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who spent more than 14 months aboard the Mir space station, returning to Earth in 1995.
Dubrov, 40, who launched to the ISS with Vande Hei last April from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, will be completing his first spaceflight, sharing 5,680 Earth orbits and more than 150 million miles in space with Vande Hei, NASA said.
ISS crew member and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov rests after landing with the Soyuz MS-19 space capsule in a remote area outside Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, March 30, 2022. /Reuters
Shkaplerov, 50, just ending his rotation as the latest ISS commander, is a veteran of four missions to the orbital outpost, accumulating 708 total days in space, far exceeding Vande Hei's 523-day career tally, according to NASA. Shkaplerov began his latest space station stint last October.
(With input from Reuters)