Space station crew returns to Earth after more than 200 days in orbit
A U.S.-Russian space crew landed safely Friday in the steppes of Kazakhstan, greeted with extra safety precautions brought on by a pandemic that didn’t exist when they left the Earth.
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 a.m. Friday. Their Soyuz landing capsule landed under a striped orange-and-white parachute about 93 miles southeast of Dzhezkazgan in central Kazakhstan.
Russian officials said they took stringent measures to protect the crew amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The recovery team and medical personnel assigned to help the crew out of the capsule and for post-flight checks had been under close medical observation for nearly a month, including tests for the coronavirus.Sign up for the latest news, best stories and what they mean for you, plus answers to your questions.
The space crew smiled as they talked to medical experts wearing masks. Following a quick checkup, the crew will be flown by helicopters to Baikonur, from where Skripochka will be taken to Moscow, said Vyacheslav Rogozhnikov, a Russian medical official who oversaw the crew’s return. Morgan and Meir will need to be driven from Baikonur to Kyzyl-Orda, nearly 200 miles away, to board a flight back to the U.S. — a strenuous journey made necessary by Kazakhstan’s quarantine measures.
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