On the day of his 70th birthday, American astronaut Donald Pettit returned to Earth on Sunday alongside Russian cosmonauts Alexei Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner after spending seven months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), NASA reported.
The trio departed the space station on Saturday at 18:57 (Sunday 00:57 GMT) aboard the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft. They landed safely with the aid of a parachute at 21:20 (03:20 GMT) southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan, according to the American space agency.
NASA expressed delight in its statement that Mr. Pettit returned on the day of his “70th birthday,” which, according to American media, makes him the oldest active astronaut.
The landing of their Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft in the Kazakh steppe was confirmed by the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
Photos provided by NASA show the smiling cosmonauts from Roscosmos, Mr. Ovchinin and Mr. Vagner, and Mr. Pettit, surrounded and assisted by ground teams in Kazakhstan.
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The three men left Earth on 11 September to “spend 220 days in space, orbiting the Earth 3,520 times and covering 93.3 million miles,” equivalent to 150 million kilometres, as stated by the US space agency.
During his seven months on the ISS, Don Pettit “conducted research to enhance on-orbit capabilities for 3D printing, wastewater treatment technologies, plant cultivation, and fire management in microgravity.”
On 8 April, the Russian Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft carrying Russian cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov and Alexei Zubritsky, along with NASA astronaut Jonny Kim, docked with the ISS to conduct 50 scientific experiments in space, according to Roscosmos. Their return to Earth is scheduled for 9 December.
