Ground personnel carry US astronaut Robert Shane Kimbrough shortly after landing near Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan Monday, April 10, 2017, on the treeless Central Asian steppes Russia's Soyuz MS-02 space capsule carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of Andrei Borisenko and Sergey Ryzhykov of Russia and NASA astronaut Robert Shane Kimbrough landed in a remote area in Kazakhstan. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool photo via AP)
The Associated Press
MOSCOW (AP) - Three astronauts from the International Space Station have successfully landed in the steppes of Kazakhstan - two from Russia and one from the United States.
NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough and Russia's Sergei Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko touched down at 5:20 p.m. local time Monday after spending 173 days in space.
NASA's Peggy Whitson, Russia's Oleg Novitsky and the European Space Agency's Thomas Pesquet will operate the orbiting space lab until another crew arrives this weekend.
The 57-year old Whitson was supposed to return to Earth in June but NASA announced last week that she would stay on the space station until September. Whitson has already spent more time in space than any other woman and just last week set a record for the most spacewalks by a woman, with eight.
Russia's Soyuz MS-02 space capsule carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of Andrei Borisenko and Sergey Ryzhykov of Russia and NASA astronaut Robert Shane Kimbrough lands in a remote area in Kazakhstan, Monday, April 10, 2017. The landing took place near Dzhezkazgan on the treeless Central Asian steppes. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool photo via AP)
The Associated Press
Russia's Soyuz MS-02 space capsule carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of Andrei Borisenko and Sergey Ryzhykov of Russia and NASA astronaut Robert Shane Kimbrough lands in a remote area in Kazakhstan, Monday, April 10, 2017. The landing took place near Dzhezkazgan on the treeless Central Asian steppes. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool photo via AP)
The Associated Press
Russia's Soyuz MS-02 space capsule carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of Andrei Borisenko and Sergey Ryzhykov of Russia and NASA astronaut Robert Shane Kimbrough lands in a remote area in Kazakhstan, Monday, April 10, 2017. The landing took place near Dzhezkazgan on the treeless Central Asian steppes. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool photo via AP)
The Associated Press
NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough rests in a chair outside the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft just minutes after he, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos, and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Borisenko of Roscosmos landed near Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Monday, April 10, 2017. Kimbrough, Ryzhikov, and Borisenko returned from the International Space Station. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
The Associated Press
NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, left, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov of Roscosmos, center, and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Borisenko of Roscosmos sit in chairs outside the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft a few moments after they landed in a remote area near Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Monday, April 10, 2017. Kimbrough, Ryzhikov, and Borisenko returned from the International Space Station. (Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP)
The Associated Press