Three members of the International Space Station crew returned to Earth safely on Saturday aboard a Russian spacecraft. Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka who currently holds the record for the longest time any human spent in space returned home along with astronauts Aidyn Aimbetov from Kazakhstan and the European Space Agency's Andreas Mogensen.
The three space explorers boarded the Soyuz TMA-16M space capsule that safely entered the Earth's atmosphere, touching down some 90 miles in southeastern Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan in Central Asia. NASA commentators who are closely monitoring the return flight of the astronauts described it as a "bull's eye" landing.
Veteran cosmonaut Padalka served as the captain of the 44th expedition aboard the orbiting space laboratory located some 220 miles above the planet.
Padalka broke the current record for the most number of days spent in space last June 28 when he reached 879 days on the ISS. The former record holder is another fellow Russian cosmonaut, Sergei Krikalev, who spent a total of 803 days in space that has been the longest flight duration in space for 10 years.
Padalka began his most recent mission on March 27 along with NASA astronauts Mikhail Kornienko from Russia and Scott Kelly from the United States where they were launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
On the other hand, Mohenson and Aimbetov only spent a brief stay at the space station where they reached the orbiting lab via a Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft, launching on September 2 and arriving and docking at the station on September 4, two days after. Mogensen is also recognized as the first person from Denmark to travel into space.
Space travel is considered to be one of the few joint endeavors between Russia and other Western nations despite political tensions over the Ukraine crisis. However, the space station experienced some major technical failures in the last months, where Russia placed a temporary moratorium on all its space missions due to Roscosmos' Progress rocket failure that resulted in a failed cargo resupply mission to the ISS last April.
After losing communications with mission ground control only moments after the launch, the freighter collapsed and re-entered into the Earth's atmosphere, burning up in the process. This explosion forced several astronauts who are scheduled to return back home to spend an additional month at the space station.