(Almaty) A Soyuz spacecraft brought two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut back to Earth on Wednesday from the International Space Station, a rare example of cooperation between Washington and Moscow amid tensions over Ukraine.
Posted at 9:55 a.m.
The Soyuz MS-19 capsule, aboard which were Russians Anton Chkaplerov and Piotr Doubrov, as well as American Mark Vande Hei, landed in southeastern Kazakhstan at 11:28 GMT (7:28 a.m. EST) as expected, according to images broadcast by the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
Three helicopters immediately landed next to the craft to pick up the passengers returning from space.
After being dragged from the capsule by several men, Mr. Chkaplerov gave a thumbs up to indicate that he was fine, wearing a broad smile.
“The descent into low orbit and the landing went smoothly, the crew is in good health,” Roscosmos said in a statement.
The two Russian cosmonauts will be transported aboard a special plane to a Russian base in the Moscow region to readapt to life on Earth, a process that will last several weeks, the space agency added.
Roscosmos does not provide details about the astronaut.
This trip comes in a context of strong tensions around Ukraine between Russia and Western countries, led by the United States, which have called into question several projects in the field of space cooperation.
At the beginning of March, Roscosmos had published a video in which it was said jokingly that Mark Vande Hei could stay on the ISS instead of returning with the Soyuz spacecraft. Faced with the concern of the Americans, the Russian agency then had to ensure that the astronaut would indeed be on the trip.
Mark Vande Hei holds the record for consecutive days spent in space by an American astronaut, with 355 days.
In this context of tensions, the boss of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin, who multiplies nationalist declarations on social networks, affirmed in mid-March that the operation of the Russian vessels supplying the ISS will be disrupted by Western sanctions against Moscow in connection with the invasion of Ukraine.
According to him, it could even cause the ISS to “ditch or land”.
Space cooperation between Russia and Western countries was one of the few areas not to have suffered too much from the tensions that have been growing since the annexation in 2014 of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea by Moscow.
But in recent weeks, several cooperation projects have borne the brunt of the crisis around Ukraine.
The European Space Agency (ESA) thus announced in mid-March that it had suspended the Russian-European ExoMars mission and the search for alternatives for the launch of four other missions due to the offensive in Ukraine.
And for its part, Moscow has suspended the launch of OneWeb satellites, forcing its British operator to turn to the American company SpaceX of billionaire Elon Musk.