NASA astronaut Chris Williams and two Russian cosmonauts, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, returned to Earth this morning after 8 months on the International Space Station.
The three-man crew undocked from the ISS at 3:03 am ET and touched down on the steppe of Kazakhstan at 6:27 am ET completing 241 days in space.
All three were out of the capsule and being tended to by medical teams within half an hour. Each crew member is presented with a matryoshka doll with their image on it as a welcome home present.
This was Williams’ first spaceflight. He conducted two spacewalks in addition to a wide range of scientific experiments including research on new cancer treatments and in-space manufacturing.
Soyuz MS-28’s replacements on Soyuz MS-29 arrived at the ISS on July 14. That crew includes NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina.
ISS is now under the command of NASA astronaut Jessica Meir. Kud-Sverchkov handed her the ceremonial key during a traditional Change-of-Command ceremony yesterday. She also is commander of NASA’s Crew-12, which includes NASA’s Jack Hathaway, ESA’s Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos’s Andrey Fedyaev.