It took some doing, but three crew members from the International Space Station returned to Earth today and are on their way home in time for Christmas.
NASA’s Kjell Lindgren, Russia’s Oleg Kononenko and Japan’s Kimiya Yui touched down on the steppes of Kazakhstan in a Russian Soyuz capsule at 7:12 p.m. local time (5:12 a.m. PT), marking the first time since 2012 that a space station crew came down after dark. It’s the sixth night landing for the Soyuz in the 15 years since astronauts started living on the station.
The shift to an after-dark landing was made to accommodate the Dec. 21 launch of an upgraded Progress supply ship.
The winter weather in Kazakhstan brought further complications: Fewer recovery helicopters were sent out, and instead of doing medical exams at the landing site, the returning spacefliers were hustled onto the copters for a flight to the nearest airport. NASA photographer Bill Ingalls tweeted that he couldn’t cover the landing, but was “happy the crew is safe and home.”
Fair winds and following seas my friends! Safe landing @astro_kjell, @Astro_Kimiya, & Oleg! #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/v6IXStkI7f
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) December 11, 2015
The remnants of #Soyuz's fiery plunge through the atmosphere. Congratulations on a successful landing #SoyuzTMA17M! pic.twitter.com/4Pr2uJJ8HT
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) December 11, 2015
.@Astro_Kjell Lindgren seen shortly after landing upon return from @Space_Station & having spent 141 days in space: https://t.co/L6QSFfnMIP
— NASA (@NASA) December 11, 2015
Lindgren, Kononenko and Yui spent 141 days on the station and played a part in many of the station’s experiments, including a lettuce chow-down. During his stay, Lindgren also took on two maintenance spacewalks alongside NASA astronaut Scott Kelly.
Kelly and Russia’s Mikhail Kornienko are more than halfway through a yearlong tour of duty on the space station. A third spaceflier, Russia’s Sergei Volkov, is also staying on the station for the holidays. They’re due to be joined on Dec. 15 by three fresh spacefliers arriving on another Soyuz craft: NASA’s Tim Kopra, Russia’s Yuri Malenchenko and Britain’s Tim Peake.
