NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei lands in Kazakhstan after a trip into space. Not alone, he returned to earth with two Russian cosmonauts.
In this photo released by the Roscosmos Space Agency, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei (L), arrives on Earth with Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov (C), and Pyotr Dubrov, Kazakhstan, Wednesday (30/3/2022) local time.
The three share a place inside a Russian-made Soyuz capsule. As reported by Reuters, Wednesday (30/3/2022), the Soyuz capsule carrying NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov is scheduled to depart the ISS at around 0645 GMT or on Wednesday (30/3) local time.
The Soyuz capsule will then make a parachute landing in the territory of central Kazakhstan about 5 hours later.
The landing zone is located about 400 kilometers northeast of Russia's space launch facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
It is known, NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei (55) returned to Earth after completing a second mission on the ISS. He will set a new record for endurance in space for a US astronaut for 355 consecutive days in orbit. The record overtakes the 2016 record held by US astronaut Scott Kelly, who was in orbit for 340 days.
Meanwhile, the Russian cosmonaut, Anton Shkaplerov (50), who has just ended his rotation as the current commander of the ISS, is a veteran cosmonaut who has undergone four missions to space orbit. He was recorded to be in space for a total of 708 days, surpassing Vande Hei for a total of 523 days.
Meanwhile, Russian cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov (40) is known to have left for the ISS with Vande Hei in April last year. The US Space Agency or NASA says Dubrov shares 5,680 Earth orbits and more than 150 million miles in space with Vande Hei.
The joint return of US astronauts and Russian cosmonauts from the ISS is being watched closely for signs of an escalation in tensions between Washington and Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine that extends into the two countries' longstanding space cooperation. NASA in its response confirmed that both the US and Russian crew on the ISS were aware of events on Earth, but continued to work together in a professional manner without tension.