Saturday, March 3, 2018

Soyuz MS-06 Returns to Earth with Expedition 53/54

Soyuz Descent module under its parachute heads towards a landing in Kazakhstan.

On Monday, February 26 the Expedition 54 came to an end during a Change of command ceremony. Cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov will command the station starting Expedition 55. They will be joined on March 21 by astronauts Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel (NASA) and Oleg Artemyev (Roscosmos).
Expedition 54/55 enjoying space before the Change of Command Ceremony.

The Soyuz capsule landed on the cold wintery steppes of Kazakhstan early on Tuesday. They were quickly joined by recovery crews flying in by helicopter and were carefully retrieved from the cramped descent module. For Soyuz commander Alexander Misurkin, he now has his second spaceflight complete. He took part in a record-breaking Russian EVA on February 2, and now has a total of 4 spacewalks in his resumé. Astronaut Joe Acaba has now completed three spaceflights, with three EVAs total. Astronaut Mark Vende Hei has completed his first space mission, and now has a fantastic four EVAs to his credit.