Moscow:
Three Russian cosmonauts landed on the steppe of Kazakhstan on Thursday after a six-month mission on the International Space Station (ISS), Russian space agency Roscosmos said.
Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev and Sergey Korsakov landed at the scheduled time of 1057 GM, 148 kilometers (91 miles) southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan.
Footage broadcast by Roscosmos shows the cosmonauts being helped by the Soyuz descent module as they get used to the effects of gravity again.
During their 195 days aboard the station, the crew completed multiple experiments and five spacewalks, Roscosmos said.
The crew of three flew to the ISS to begin their mission in mid-March, weeks after Moscow sent troops to Ukraine to begin what it called a “military operation.”
In July, Roscosmos posted a photo of the trio aboard the ISS with flags of Kremlin-backed breakaway regions of Lugansk and Donetsk to show support for Moscow’s forces in eastern Ukraine.
Their return to Earth comes as four Moscow-occupied regions of Ukraine — including Lugansk and Donetsk — call on President Vladimir Putin to formally annex the territories to Russia after hastily staged votes that the West believed were a sham.
In response to Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, western capitals have hit Moscow with unprecedented sanctions, including against the aerospace industry.
Despite lingering tensions, space remains one of the last remaining areas of cooperation between Moscow and Washington.
Last week, NASA’s Frank Rubio and Russia’s Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin launched to the ISS from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Roscosmos-operated spacecraft.
Meanwhile, Russia’s only active female cosmonaut, Anna Kikina, is expected to travel to the orbital station in early October aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon.
The ISS, a collaboration between the US, Canada, Japan, the European Space Agency, and Russia, is split into two sections: the US orbital segment and the Russian orbital segment.
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