MOSCOW, March 11 (RIA Novosti) – US astronaut Michael Hopkins and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky landed safely in Kazakhstan on Tuesday morning after nearly six months in orbit aboard the International Space Station.
The landing, broadcast live, marked the return to Earth of the first astronauts to have carried the Olympic torch into open space.
Kotov and Ryazansky took the unlit torch on a November spacewalk before its return to Earth two days later along with a departing crew ahead of the Sochi Winter Olympics.
The pair also set a new record in December for the longest spacewalk of Russians in domestic spacesuits at eight hours, 10 minutes.
Tuesday’s landing of the Soyuz TMA-10M spacecraft proceeded without incident, although flight controllers had earlier debated delaying the re-entry due to unfavorable weather at the landing site.
The station is currently staffed by US astronaut Richard Mastracchio and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin under the command of Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata.
The trio will be joined by three more astronauts to arrive aboard a Soyuz on March 26.
