Soyuz Space Capsule Lands Safely, Home After 115 Days

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying a crew of three astronauts successfully landed on the Central Asian steppes of Kazakhstan at 9:58 A.M local time on Sunday (October 30), after an 115-days stay on the International Space Station. The space capsule carried three space travelers named Kate Rubins of NASA, Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi.

According to Space.com, Rob Navias, NASA spokesman confirmed the landing of the spacecraft during the agency's landing webcast commentary. He said that the crew is back home after a journey of 115 days and 48.9 million miles. The return to earth took less than 3.5 hours.

The departure of the spacecraft from the station at 8:35 EDT (0035 GMT) marked the end of Expedition 49 and commenced the Expedition 50. The three crew members reached the station together on July 6. This was the first space flight for Rubins and Onishi. Ivanishin flew to the station in 2011 as a crew member of Expedition 29 and 30.

Though it was her first spaceflight, she managed to participate in the spacewalk to install and international docking adapter, which will allow the commercial vehicles to tie up with the station in the coming years. She also became the first person to string DNA in space.

As per a report published by Yahoo News, Rubins said that she was feeling 'better than expected' after the landing. One team member went ahead to ask her regarding what she needed right now after landing? And Rubin gave out an amazing answer, "To sit here and enjoy the earth".

Before returning back, Ivanishin handed over the command of the station to NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough on October 28. Shane continues to remain on the station with Russian cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko and Sergey Ryzhikov. The spacecraft was composed of three elements - Orbital Module, Descent Module, and Instrumentation Module. The crew occupied the central element - the Descent Module.