FX.co ★ Spacecraft with 3 cosmonauts onboard lands in Kazakhstan

The Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft carrying three crewmembers of the International Space Station (ISS) has landed in Kazakhstan, the Mission Control Center in the Moscow Region said on Wednesday, September 7.

Photo: The descent capsule before landing, Kazakhstan.

Search and rescue groups have set off to the place of landing, they will evacuate the crew members from the capsule, in particular Russian cosmonauts Aleksey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka, and US astronaut Jeffrey Williams.

Photo: The crew of the ISS-47/48 expedition shortly after the landing.

It is known that the capsule deviated from the previously planned course, so the rescue team had to conduct the searching operation before finding the heroes of the expedition. The search-and-rescue support of the landing involved 200 soldiers, 12 Mi-8 helicopters with special equipment, four AN-12 and AN-26 planes.

Photo: The descent vehicle landed 148 kilometers from the city of Jezkazgan in the Karaganda region of Kazakhstan

In order to make the landing successful, 200 military personnel took part in the operation.

Photo: The Soyuz TMA-20M capsule at the moment of landing.

Ovchinin, Skripochka and Williams went to the orbit on March 19 and spent 172 days in space. This was the first space flight for Ovchinin, second for Skripochka and fourth for Williams.

Photo: The friendly team before landing.

Photo: The extracted crew rests on couches. Williams is on the left, Ovchinin in the center, and Skripochka on the right.

Photo: After Ovchinin jokingly asked for a watermelon, the ground team came through and presented him with one.

The next Soyuz spacecraft will fly to the ISS on September 23. It will take Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko, and US astronaut Robert S. Kimbraugh to space.