Soyuz spacecraft returns to earth on Wednesday, and onboard were two Russian cosmonauts and an American Astronaut from the International Space Station (ISS).
The Soyuz spacecraft brought the two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut back to earth in a rare example of cooperation between Washington and Moscow in the midst of tensions over Ukraine.
The capsule, aboard which are Russians Anton Chkaplerov and Piotr Doubrov, as well as American Mark Vande Hei, landed in southeastern Kazakhstan at 11:28 GMT as planned, according to images transmitted by the space agency Russian Roscosmos.
The Soyuz spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan after astronaut and cosmonauts spent 355 days in orbit.
Vande Hei, 55, logged a US 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.
The all-time world record for the 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.
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.
The cosmonaut handed over the command of the station to NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn during a change of command ceremony.
“Even if people have problems on Earth, on orbit we are one crew and I think ISS is a symbol of friendship and cooperation and the symbol of future of exploration of space,” Shkaplerov said on Tuesday as he handed over the keys.