Touchdown! Soyuz capsule MS-07 lands after firing retro-rockets in Kazakhstan.
Expedition 55 prepares to enter Soyuz MS-07 before undocking. (L-R) Anton Shkaplerov, Norishige Kanai, and Scott Tingle.
Expedition 55 came to an end officially when the crew of Soyuz MS-07 undocked their ship from the ISS on June 3. Cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov (Roscosmos) commanded the Soyuz and astronauts Norishige Kani (JAX) and Scott Tingle (NASA) occupied the left and right seats. STaying on board, and commencing Expedition 56, were Commander Drew Feustel (NASA), Ricky Arnold (NASA) and Oleg Artemyev (Roscosmos) acting as Flight Engineers.
The Soyuz safely landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan later that day. Three more crewmembers were scheduled to arrive shortly.
The crew of Expedition 56/57 pose before their Soyuz rocket, with its special markings commemorating the 2018 FIFA World Cup. (L-R) Serena Auñon-Chancellor, Sergey Prokopyev, and Alexander Gerst.
Russian Soyuz rocket blasts off from Baikonur with Expedition 56/57.
On Wednesday, June 6, the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft was sent on a 2-day orbital rendezvous with the ISS. The ship docked on June 8 to the Russian-made Rassvet module. Astronaut Gerst of the ESA is on his 2nd mission to the station, and will assume command for expedition 57.
Recently, the Dragon cargo ship left the station and returned to Earth. On May 24, the Cygnus cargo spacecraft docked to the station with thousands of pound worth of supplies and science experiment support.
View from the Cuppola on the ISS of the Cygnus cargo spaceship grappled by the CanadArm.
