PARIS: NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova have safely touched down in Kazakhstan with the landing heralding the end of a 167-day mission to the International Space Station. During their time in low-Earth orbit, the crew’s activities were planned to the minute by mission controllers on the ground. Over the course of Expedition 42, hundreds of experiments were undertaken relating to the effects of the microgravity environment aboard the station, the potential benefits of which will aid future astronauts, as well as the people back on Earth.
Astronauts Barry Wilmore and Terry Virts undertook three spacewalks designed to reconfigure the space station, laying hundreds of feet of communication and power cables in order to lay the groundwork for the fitting of a new format of docking port. The International Docking Adaptor will allow the next generation of American commercial crew and cargo resupply vessels to dock with the ISS.
Commander Wilmore handed over control of the station to Virts on Wednesday in a low-key but emotional ceremony, after which the three crew members boarded their return Soyuz TMA-14M, sealed the hatch, and finally departed from the station at 6:44 pm EDT.
