Astana, (TDI): The Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft carrying Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson successfully touched down in the Kazakh steppe near Zhezkazgan, marking the end of a record-setting mission.
Kononenko and Chub spent an impressive 374 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS), making it one of the longest space missions in history.
Their mission duration is second only to the spaceflights of Valery Polyakov and Sergey Avdeev, who spent 438 and 380 days in space, respectively, aboard the Mir space station.
NASA’s Tracy Dyson completed 184 days in orbit.
During their time on the ISS, Kononenko and Chub contributed to vital scientific research, received four Progress MS cargo ships, and carried out two spacewalks.
Their efforts were a significant contribution to the ongoing applied and fundamental research conducted aboard the ISS.
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The Soyuz capsule landed yesterday at 14:59 Moscow time.
The successful mission is a notable achievement for both the Russian space agency Roscosmos and NASA, further advancing international cooperation in space exploration.
Meanwhile, the ISS continues to host members of the 72nd long-duration expedition, including cosmonauts and astronauts from Russia and the United States.
International Space Station
Launched in 1998, the ISS is regarded as one of humanity’s greatest engineering feats.
Orbiting Earth every 90 minutes, the station allows its crew to witness 16 sunrises and sunsets daily.
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Spanning 109 meters in length, the ISS remains the largest structure ever built in space, and also one of the most expensive, with a cost of approximately $120 billion by 2014.
The ISS currently requires around $3 billion annually for its operation, comprising a significant portion of NASA’s human spaceflight budget.
