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Home , Aleksey Ovchinin, Anne McClain, Gennady Padalka, Robert Thirsk

16 Health & Technology Wednesday, June 26, 2019 Russian and North American return to earth Russians dominate the rankings for cumulative days spent in space

DZHEZKAZGAN: The first crew to blast off to the Soviet history and a new setback for the country’s March on a fresh mission. Russians dominate the International following a launch acci- once proud space industry. rankings for cumulative days spent in space, with dent that deepened doubts over Russia’s space pro- the Kononenko reaching 737 days. gram returned to earth safely yesterday. NASA Record-breakers, That leaves the 55-year-old sixth in the all-time Anne McClain, veteran cosmonaut Oleg McClain, Kononenko and Saint-Jacques had been standings and just a typical ISS mission short of Kononenko of , and Canadian Space optimistic ahead of their successful launch and remained beating the 879-day record set by 60-year-old Agency record-holder David Saint-Jacques upbeat throughout their time aboard the orbital lab Roscosmos colleague Gennady Padalka in 2015. emerged from the space craft to applause from sup- which is seen as a rare example of cooperation between Since 2011, Russia is the only country to oversee port crews, after touching down near the Kazakh Russia and the West. “A beautiful night pass over Africa manned launches to the ISS. But last year’s failed city of Dzhezkazgan. on my last night on @Space_Station,” tweeted 40-year- launch, multi-billion dollar corruption scandals at Live footage from the landing site broadcast on old McClain, who completed two spacewalks during her Roscosmos and the emergence of private sector NASA television showed the three sitting in chairs virgin mission to the ISS. Fellow first-time flyer Saint- competitors like Elon Musk’s SpaceX have combined smiling as they were attended to by staff ahead of a Jacques broke the record for the longest single space- to put into question Moscow’s future dominance. journey back to Moscow for Kononenko and flight by a Canadian astronaut, previously held by NASA said earlier this month that it will be for McClain and Saint-Jacques. Arriving at Thirsk. Thirsk clocked 187 days at the ISS in opening the ISS up to space tourists for the first 0247 GMT to warm conditions, Kononenko joked 2009 during a typical six-month mission, while 49- time next year with 30-day visits expedited by that he was “happy to see any kind of weather” after year-old Saint-Jacques’ mission will stand at 204 days. SpaceX and Boeing expected to cost around $58 coming back from space. The trio’s launch on The record was helped along by the fact that the million per person. Russia has flown seven tourists December 3 was the first after a rocket car- launch was moved forward to December 3 from to the ISS but is set to increase that number begin- rying Russia’s and US astronaut December 20 for operational reasons - possibly as a ning in 2021, according to Roscosmos, which struck failed in October just minutes after confidence booster after the accident. The returning a deal with American company Space Adventures blast-off, forcing the pair to make an emergency trio were given a ceremonial send off Monday as earlier this year. US businessman Dennis Tito was DZHEZKAZGAN: Ground personnel carry NASA astronaut Anne McClain landing. They escaped unharmed but the failed they exited the ISS by Ovchinin, Hague and NASA the first space tourist to the ISS, paying Russia shortly after landing in a remote area outside the town of Dzhezkazgan launch was the first such incident in Russia’s post- astronaut , who arrived at the lab in around $20 million for the trip. — AFP (Zhezkazgan), yesterday. — AFP