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Russian military pilots to meet returning Soyuz-MS spacecraft crew in Kazakhstan

The search and rescue team comprises around 200 military servicemen, fourteen Mi-8 helicopters, Antonov An-12 and An-26 aircraft as well as search-and-evacuate amphibious aircraft
ISS Expedition 48/49 crew members, Takuya Onishi, Anatoly Ivanshin and Kathleen Rubins Marina Lystseva/TASS
ISS Expedition 48/49 crew members, Takuya Onishi, Anatoly Ivanshin and Kathleen Rubins
© Marina Lystseva/TASS

YEKATERINBURG, October 28. /TASS/. Russian military pilots will meet the "Soyuz-MS" spacecraft crew scheduled to land in Kazakhstan on October 30, aide to the Commander of the Central Military District of Russia, Yaroslav Roshchupkin, said on Friday.

"Military aircraft has been redeployed from the Urals region to 4 air fields in Kazakhstan to meet the international crew of the manned "Soyuz-MS" spacecraft scheduled to land on Sunday, October 30. The pilots will locate the space capsule, conduct a medical examination of the cosmonauts and evacuate them from the landing site together with the space capsule," Roshchupkin elaborated.

According to him, the search and rescue team comprises around 200 military servicemen, fourteen Mi-8 helicopters, Antonov An-12 and An-26 aircraft and 20 other planes including four search-and-evacuate amphibious aircraft.

The International Space Station Expedition consisting of 49 crew members, Russia’s Anatoly Ivanshin, Japan’s Takuya Onishi and Kathleen Rubins from the US will return to the Earth on Sunday.

A lookout command post to meet the space capsule has been set up at the Combat Control Center of the 14th Air Force and Air Defense Army in the Urals’ city of Yekaterinburg.