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Successful Soyuz Mission Returns American and Russian Astronauts After 220 Days in Space

April 21, 2025

Successful Soyuz Mission Returns American and Russian Astronauts After 220 Days in Space

A Soyuz spacecraft, carrying one American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts, successfully returned from the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday.

According to Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, the capsule landed on the Kazakh steppe in the morning.

“At 4:20 Moscow time today, the Soyuz MS-26 capsule touched down with crew members Alexei Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, and Donald (Don) Pettit near the town of Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan,” the agency announced.

Ovchinin and Vagner, along with NASA astronaut Pettit, had spent 220 days in space after arriving at the ISS in September of the previous year.

During their stay on the ISS, they were joined by two U.S. astronauts until March. Initially, the American duo was scheduled for an eight-day mission, but they became stranded for over nine months when their spacecraft was determined to be unfit for their return journey.

Despite the near-total breakdown in U.S.-Russia relations due to Russia’s extensive invasion of Ukraine, space exploration remains one of the few areas where cooperation continues between the two countries.

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