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Added on the 17/04/2021 02:20:19 - Copyright : AFPTV - First images
NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei and Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov hug their International Space Station crewmates before boarding a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to Earth. Cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev closes the hatch of the capsule. NASA, earlier in March, said tensions linked to the war in Ukraine had no impact on ISS operations or the planned return of an American astronaut aboard a Russian capsule later this month. There have been fears that soaring tensions between the United States and Russia over Ukraine could leave the 55-year-old stranded on the outpost. There had been fears that soaring tensions between the United States and Russia over Ukraine could leave the 55-year-old Vande Hei stranded on the outpost. IMAGES
Two Russian cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut touch down on the Kazakhstan steppe following a half-year mission, according to footage broadcast by NASA and the Russian space agency. Russian cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins landed at 0455 GMT around 150 kilometres from the town of Zhezkazgan. IMAGES
Boeing's beleaguered Starliner returns to Earth on without the astronauts who traveled in it to the International Space Station, after NASA deemed the risk too great. The gumdrop-shaped capsule landed gently at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico at approximately 0401 GMT Saturday, its descent slowed by parachutes and cushioned by airbags, having departed the ISS around six hours earlier. IMAGES
Two US astronauts who arrived at the International Space Station aboard Boeing's Starliner will have to return home with rival SpaceX, NASA says. "NASA has decided that Butch and Sunny will return with Crew 9 next February, and that Starliner will return uncrewed," NASA administrator Bill Nelson tells reporters. The return of Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Sunita "Suni" Williams has been delayed by thruster malfunctions of the Boeing spacecraft. SOUNDBITE
A space capsule carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitri Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, lands on the Earth's surface in Kazakhstan. IMAGES