Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft carrying Expedition 72 crew lands in Kazakhstan

The Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft, carrying Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, along with NASA astronaut Donald Pettit, successfully returned to Earth, according to the Russian space agency, Roscosmos.

The agency reported that the deorbiting and descent process proceeded normally.

At 6:20 am Kazakhstan time (3:20 am CET), the Russian spacecraft made a parachute-assisted landing in Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan.

The astronauts were on a mission in space spanning 220 days. During the course of their assignment, they spanned the Earth 3,520 times and completed a journey of 150 million kilometres.

Alexey Ovchinin completed his third spaceflight, Ivan Vagner his second, and Donald Pettit his fourth.

NASA’s Pettit served as flight engineer for Expedition 71 and 72, and has accumulated a career total of 590 days in orbit

The three formed the main crew of Expedition 72 on board the International Space Station and conducted dozens of scientific experiments during their mission. They first docked on the ISS on 11 September, 2024.

The crew have been helicopter-lifted to the recovery staging city of Karaganda in Kazakhstan. Pettit will board a NASA plane and return to Houston, while Ovchinin and Vagner will depart for a training base in Star City, Russia.

On Friday, they handed the reigns of the ISS over to Expedition 73 crew, led by Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi. The changing of the guard was marked by a change of command ceremony on board the station.