Capsule carrying 2 Russians, 1 American returns to Earth from space station

MOSCOW, Russia -- A Russian abstraction capsule undocked from the International Space Station connected Monday to instrumentality 3 astronauts backmost to Earth, 2 of them completing a record-long enactment connected the orbiting laboratory.

The capsule carrying Russians Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub and American Tracy Dyson landed successful the immense Kazakhstan steppe astir 3 1/2 hours aft the undocking.

Kononenko and Chub blasted disconnected for the abstraction presumption connected Sept. 15, 2023, and connected Friday acceptable the grounds for the longest continuous ngo connected the ISS. Dyson, successful her 3rd ngo into outer space, spent six months aboard.

Eight astronauts stay connected the abstraction station, including Americans Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, who person remained agelong past their scheduled instrumentality to Earth.

They arrived successful June arsenic the archetypal unit of Boeing's caller Starliner capsule. But their travel was marred by thruster troubles and helium leaks, and the U.S. abstraction bureau NASA decided it was excessively risky to instrumentality them connected Starliner.

The 2 astronauts volition thrust location with SpaceX adjacent year.