NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Russian crewmates Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko landed back on Earth today after spending almost six months on the International Space Station. The three left the station overnight in a Russian Soyuz craft and made what NASA spokesman Rob Navias called a “bull’s-eye touchdown” on the steppes of Kazakhstan at 5:20 p.m. local time (4:20 a.m. PT). During the trio’s 173 days in space, Kimbrough took on four spacewalks for maintenance tasks. Three other astronauts remain in orbit, including NASA’s Peggy Whitson, who is now the first woman to serve two stints as the space station’s commander. Two new crew members are due to join Whitson, France’s Thomas Pesquet and Russia’s Oleg Novitsky later this month.
News Brief
