Three astronauts land back on Earth in Soyuz capsule 14 May 2014 NASA in April announced that it was cutting space cooperation with Russia over Moscow's Ukraine policies, but that work at the space station would not be affected. In what appeared to be a retaliatory move, Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin said Tuesday that Moscow had no plans to keep the station past 2020, even though NASA said in January that the administration of Barack Obama has extended the station's lifespan to 2024. Use of the space station depends on Russia, which is the only country in charge of transporting astronauts and cosmonauts to and from the station. Russian space agency rescue team members carry Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata shortly after landing, about 150 km south-east of the Kazakh town of Dzhezkazgan, in Kazakhstan, on May 14, 2014 Three astronauts, including a Russian and an American, touched down safely on Earth Wednesday aboard a Soyuz capsule, the first such landing since Russia's relationship with the West slumped amid the Ukraine crisis. The returning crew consisted of Japan's Koichi Wakata, who was the first ever Japanese commander of an ISS space mission, as well as NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and Russian The Russian Soyuz TMA-011M space capsule lands cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin. about 150 km (90 miles) south-east of the Kazakh town of Dzhezkazgan, in Kazakhstan, on May 14, 2014 They landed safely at 0159 GMT in the Kazakh steppes after spending more than half a year aboard the orbiting International Space Station. The ISS was launched in 1998 as an international The landing was the first since Russia's effort and has been a symbol of cooperation, relationship with the West hit its lowest point in particularly between the US and Russia. When the decades over the annexation of Ukraine's Crimea time comes to retire it, the station will be de-orbited peninsula by Moscow in mid-March and its and sunk in the ocean. involvement in the ensuing Ukraine crisis. At a press conference on Tuesday, Wakata 1 / 3 thanked the three-man crew staying behind with the ISS and formally handed over the command to US astronaut Steve Swanson as the two floated the microphone to each other in the cramped space surrounded by crewmates. Swanson's crew now comprises Russia's Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev. They will be joined later this month by American Reid Wiseman, Germany's Alexander Gerst and Russia's Maxim Surayev. Russian space agency rescue team help US astronaut Rick Mastracchio shortly after landing, about 150 km ( 80 miles) south-east of the Kazakh town of Dzhezkazgan, in Kazakhstan, on May 14, 2014 "Folks, my last tweet from space. Stay tuned for post-flight fun," Mastracchio tweeted Tuesday several hours before the hatch on the departing Soyuz was closed. Research conducted by the crew during the course of their 188-day stint in space included growing vegetables, investigating the design of medical drugs and studying how an astronaut's biological clock is different from that of a human on Earth. © 2014 AFP APA citation: Three astronauts land back on Earth in Soyuz capsule (2014, May 14) retrieved 30 September 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2014-05-threeastronauts-earth-soyuz-capsule.html 2 / 3 This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only. 3 / 3 Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org).