ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti back on Earth. (Photo : ESA/NASA)
After 199 days aboard the International Space Station located in lower Earth orbit, three astronauts have returned back home on June 11, Thursday at 9:44 A.M. EDT.
The three crew members from Expedition 43 was greeted by American and Russian space agencies when they returned home via a Russian Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft which landed in a steppe landscape region in Kazakhstan some 92 miles of southeastern Zhezkhagan.
According to Russian astronaut Anton Shkaplerov, everything worked out every second, every step of the way, the crew were great, as he was telling media about the end of their mission.
The space capsule where the astronauts were brought back from the orbiting space station was smoldered upon re-entry back to the planet and landed safely upright where search and recovery rescue teams were able to quickly find the crew.
The first to exit the vehicle upon landing was Shklaperov followed by European Space Agency's Samantha Cristoforetti and the last one to leave the capsule was Expedition 43's Commander Terry Virts.
When the astronauts and cosmonauts landed on Earth, they immediately exited the vehicle where they were also able to relax in reclining chairs under the sunshine in order to adjust back to the climate of the planet. In Moscow, Russian mission control center's huge screen displayed the words "They have landed!"
Italian astronaut Cristoforetti requested for the first space espresso machine for the ISS where she made the first freshly brewed coffee in space. As a Star Trek fan, she was also the first person to wear the Starfleet uniform in space where this mission officially made her the first woman who had spent the longest time in space.
However, this landing has been already delayed for a month after a Russian resupply cargo ship failed to reach the space station on April 28. During the span of two weeks, that space capsule that was carrying two tons of food and supplies including scientific equipment for the crew in the orbiting lab, have fallen back into the Earth's atmosphere, burning up where remnants crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
NASA announced that the remaining Expedition 44 crew that includes NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko will arrive in late July where the launch will take place in Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
