NASA Astronaut Returns to Earth With Two Cosmonauts After 8 Months on ISS

A joint U.S.-Russian crew returned to Earth safely on Sunday, touching down on the vast steppes of Kazakhstan after spending eight months aboard the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Russian crewmates Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev landed aboard the Soyuz MS-28, which descended under parachute and made a smooth landing in a designated zone southeast of Dzhezkazgan.

The 241-day mission marked the first trip to space for Williams and Mikaev, while Kud-Sverchkov completed his second flight to the orbiting laboratory.

Recovery teams will transport the crew by helicopter to Karaganda. From there, Williams is expected to board a flight back to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, while Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev will travel to their training base in Star City, near Moscow.

The landing underscored the enduring, if strained, space partnership between the United States and Russia. Former Cold War rivals, the two countries have continued cooperating on the International Space Station despite heightened tensions following Moscow’s 2022 deployment of troops into Ukraine. U.S. and Russian crew members still routinely fly to the station aboard each other’s spacecraft.

A new crew arrived at the International Space Station on July 14, when NASA astronaut Anil Menon and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina launched from the Russia-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to begin their own eight-month mission.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman was present for the launch, marking the first visit to Baikonur by a NASA chief in eight years.

The newly arrived trio joined NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrei Fedyaev as members of Expedition 75.