Astana: The Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft has safely returned to Earth, bringing home Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, alongside NASA astronaut Donald Pettit. According to Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, the deorbiting and descent operations unfolded smoothly without incident.
The spacecraft touched down with the aid of parachutes at 6:20 a.m. local time in Kazakhstan (3:20 a.m. CET), landing southeast of Dzhezkazgan. The trio completed a remarkable 220-day mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), during which they orbited the Earth 3,520 times and traveled an estimated 150 million kilometers.
This mission marked Ovchinin’s third journey into space, Vagner’s second, and Pettit’s fourth. Pettit served as a flight engineer during Expeditions 71 and 72, bringing his total time spent in space to an impressive 590 days.
The three astronauts played key roles in Expedition 72, conducting a wide range of scientific experiments aboard the ISS since docking with the station on September 11, 2024.
Following their landing, the crew was transported by helicopter to Karaganda for initial recovery procedures. From there, Pettit is expected to return to Houston aboard a NASA aircraft, while Ovchinin and Vagner will head back to Star City, Russia, for further post-mission evaluations.
Before their departure, the crew officially handed over command of the ISS to Expedition 73, led by Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, in a formal ceremony held on board the space station.
