ISS crew lands in Kazakhstan after more than 200 days

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MOSCOW: A US-Russian house crew landed safely Friday within the steppes of Kazakhstan, greeted with additional precautions amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Following a stint on the International Space Station, NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan and Russian Oleg Skripochka touched down as scheduled at 11:16 am (0516 GMT) Friday. Their Soyuz touchdown capsule landed underneath a striped orange-and-white parachute about 150 kilometres (93 miles) southeast of Dzhezkazgan in central Kazakhstan.

Russian officers mentioned they took stringent measures to guard the crew amid the pandemic. The restoration group and medical personnel assigned to assist the crew out of the capsule and for post-flight checks had been underneath shut medical statement for practically a month, together with checks for the coronavirus.

The house crew smiled as they talked to medical consultants carrying masks. Following a fast checkup, the crew might be flown by helicopters to Baikonur, from the place Skripochka might be taken to Moscow, mentioned Vyacheslav Rogozhnikov, a Russian medical official who oversaw the crew’s return.

Morgan and Meir should be pushed from Baikonur to Kyzyl-Orda, 300 kilometres (190 miles) away, to board a flight to the U.S. — a strenuous journey made needed by Kazakhstan’s quarantine measures.

On Thursday, the Russian authorities coronavirus headquarters reported the primary contagion on the Star City, which serves as the principle hub for pre-flight coaching of U.S., Russian and different worldwide crew members of the International Space Station. The Star City additionally has residential quarters for cosmonauts and help employees.

Roscosmos Director Dmitry Rogozin mentioned Wednesday that the Russian house company had 30 coronavirus instances.

The crew returned to Earth precisely 50 years after the Apollo 13 astronauts splashed down within the Pacific after an oxygen tank explosion aborted the moon-landing mission.

Morgan wrapped up a 272-day mission on his first flight into house. He carried out seven house walks, 4 of which had been to enhance and prolong the lifetime of the station’s Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which seems to be for proof of darkish matter within the universe.

Meir and Skripochka spent 205 days in house, with Meir finishing up the primary three all-women spacewalks together with her crewmate Christina Koch, who returned from house in February.

Speaking from the orbiting outpost earlier than the return to Earth, the crew mentioned that coming again to the world drastically modified by the pandemic might be difficult. Morgan mentioned the crew has tried to maintain atop the coronavirus information, however added that it’s laborious to understand what’s actually occurring.

“It is kind of surreal for us to see this entire scenario unfolding on the planet under,” mentioned Meir. “We can let you know that the Earth nonetheless seems to be simply as beautiful as all the time from up right here, so it’s tough to consider all of the modifications which have taken place since each of us have been up right here.”

A brand new crew comprising NASA’s Chris Cassidy and Russians Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner arrived on the station on April 9. They mentioned earlier than blastoff that that they had been underneath a really strict quarantine for a month earlier than the flight and had been feeling good.

The publish ISS crew lands in Kazakhstan after greater than 200 days appeared first on The Himalayan Times.

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