spacetoday.net: ISS crew returns to Earth

ISS crew returns to Earth

Posted: Fri, Jun 12, 2015, 1:52 PM ET (1752 GMT)
Soyua TMA-15M landing (NASA)

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three ISS crewmembers safely landed in Kazakhstan Thursday. The Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft landed on target southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, at 9:44 am EDT, a few hours after undocking from the ISS. The spacecraft returned to Earth NASA astronaut Terry Virts, ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov. The three spent nearly 200 days in orbit, about a month longer in space than originally planned after a Progress failure in April forced the ISS partners to change the schedule of missions to the station. Three people remain on the ISS, and a new crew of three will join them in late July.