spacetoday.net: Soyuz returns with record-setting astronaut

Soyuz returns with record-setting astronaut

Posted: Sun, Sep 3, 2017, 10:10 AM ET (1410 GMT)
Soyuz MS-04 landing (NASA)

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying three people, including a NASA astronaut who set records while on the International Space Station, safely landed in Kazakhstan Sunday. The Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft landed on the Kazakh steppes at 9:21 pm EDT Saturday (0121 GMT, 7:21 am local time Sunday), a few hours after undocking from the ISS. The Soyuz returned to Earth Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and American astronauts Jack Fischer and Peggy Whitson. Yurchikhin and Fischer had spent 136 days in space, while Whitson completed a 288-day mission to the station. Whitson has spent a total of 665 days in space over three long-duration missions, a US record.