(Washington) A crew of four astronauts, including a Russian, left the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday to return to the United States after a mission of approximately six months in orbit.
The crew joined the ISS at the end of August aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule for a routine NASA mission called “Crew-7”.
The mission led by American astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli includes Denmark’s Andreas Mogensen, Japan’s Satoshi Furukawa and Russian cosmonaut Konstantin Borissov.
Jasmin Moghbeli, for whom this was the first mission in space, praised in a departure speech on Sunday the international cooperation which made it possible, after the end of the Cold War in the 1990s, to set up the ISS. “It’s proof of what is possible when we work together,” she said.
Despite the diplomatic tensions between Washington and Moscow since the start of the war in Ukraine, collaboration between the American and Russian space agencies continues on the ISS – one of the few subjects of cooperation still ongoing between the two countries.
The four astronauts are expected at sea, near the coast of Florida, Tuesday morning from 5:35 a.m. (Eastern time). During the six months spent in space, the crew carried out scientific work, for example studying how microgravity, which accelerates aging, affects liver regeneration.
This is the seventh regular crew rotation mission carried out by SpaceX, the company of billionaire Elon Musk, for NASA. “Crew-8”, which took over, arrived on March 5 on the ISS.
NASA pays SpaceX for this service, which has reduced dependence on Russia to take crews to the International Space Station since the end of American space shuttle flights in 2011.