Moscow - (Saba):
The Russian Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft successfully landed in the steppes of Kazakhstan on Sunday, carrying Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, and American astronaut Donald Pettit, after a mission of more than 200 days to the International Space Station.
The crew began their return journey after the spacecraft separated from the station at 00:57 Moscow time. The braking system then began operating in preparation for the landing, which occurred as planned at 3:27 a.m.
During the mission, the crew conducted more than 40 scientific experiments, in addition to a spacewalk to install a spectrometer to study cosmic radiation. A new crew of astronauts from Russia, the United States, and Japan is scheduled to continue working on the station.