Crew from the ISS Landed Back to Earth after Completing Duty in Space

By Jess F. - 07 Sep '16 11:59AM

Just like any other mission, the ISS duty must also come to an end. Three more astronauts landed safely on Earth after completing their duty inside the International Space Station (ISS).

The three astronauts completed their 170-day mission inside the space station. The two Russian cosmonauts and one NASA astronaut landed on Earth aboard the Soyuz spacecraft in Kazakhstan.

Aleksey Oyxchinin, Oleg Skripochka and Jeff Williams left the ISS on Tuesday. The Soyuz spacecraft safely landed near the town of Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan. "The crewmembers' state of health is normal. The space travelers who have returned to Earth will undergo a medical check-up, after which Aleksey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka will be brought to Star City by plane, while Jeffrey Williams will take a flight to the US," an official from the Russia's Mission Control Center (MCC) said in a statement.

While the three are safely back on Earth, three more crew members, Russian cosmonaut Anatily Ivanishin, NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins and JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi, will remain on the ISS while waiting for the next Expedition crew members to arrive in space.

Before the crewmembers left the ISS, there were ceremonies performed like the change of command ceremony when Jeff Williams handed the control of the ISS to Anatoly Ivanishin. The farewell and the hatch closure was done on Sept. 5 at 2:30 pm. While the undocking, deorbit and landing were streamed live by NASA TV.

Commander Jeff Williams of NASA also broke the record previously held by astronaut Scott Kelly for the longest stay in space, according to The Verge. Kelly has a total of 520 days spent in space while Williams just completed 534 days in the ISS.

But before returning back to Earth, Williams has been instrumental in the latest spacewalk conducted on the ISS. Together with astronaut Kate Rubins, Williams installed the new docking port outside the ISS to prepare for the new type of space shuttle to dock with the ISS in 2018.