An American, a Russian and a Belarusian returned to Earth after a stay aboard the International Space Station

An American NASA astronaut and two Russian and Belarusian cosmonauts landed safely on Earth on Saturday April 6 after a stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS). “Today [samedi]at 10:17 Moscow time [9h17 à Paris]the descent vehicle of the Soyuz MS-24 manned spacecraft landed near the Kazakh city of Jezkazgan”said the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, in a statement. “Deorbiting [du vaisseau] and its descent to Earth took place normally.”

According to the Roscosmos press release, experienced Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky and the first Belarusian cosmonaut in history, Marina Vassilevskaya, “spent 14 days in orbit”, while American astronaut Loral O’Hara returns from a 204-day mission. For Marina Vassilevskaïa and Loral O’Hara, this was the first flight of their careers on the ISS.

Russia’s space sector in difficulty

In a press release released by his services, the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, “congratulated the crew of the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft on its successful landing”. Two weeks ago, the takeoff of the ship to the ISS, with Marina Vassilevskaïa and Oleg Novitsky on board, was postponed.

This postponement represented a new setback for the Russian space sector, which has been struggling for years due to financing problems, corruption scandals and failures such as the loss of the Luna-25 lunar probe in August 2023. Cooperation Russian-Western cooperation in the space field was also weighed down by the Russian assault on Ukraine and the sanctions that followed. The ISS constitutes one of the rare areas of cooperation still in progress between Moscow and Washington.