Spacecraft With Russian Cosmonauts Returning From ISS Lands in Kazakhstan

KOROLYOV, Moscow region (Sputnik) - Russian cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergei Korsakov returned to the Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday after the descent vehicle of the Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft landed in the Kazakh steppe, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

The landing took place southeast of the Kazakh city of Zhezqazghan.

The spacecraft undocked from the ISS at 10:33 Moscow time (07:33 GMT) earlier in the day and a few hours later began de-orbiting. The Soyuz MS-21 was divided into compartments, and then, the descent vehicle with the crew entered the dense layers of the Earth's atmosphere.

The Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft arrived at the ISS on March 18. The spacecraft was named after great Soviet rocket engineer Sergei Korolev in connection with the 115th anniversary of his birth.

During the flight, the Russian crew made five spacewalks to integrate new ISS modules Nauka and Prichal into the Russian segment of the station. Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, whom Artemyev handed over command of the ISS on Wednesday, has also participated in one of the spacewalks.