Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka, along with veteran NASA astronaut Jeff Williams, will make the three-hour return trip back to Earth in a Russian Soyuz capsule this evening.
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Their Soyuz spacecraft made a safe parachute landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan.
Three astronauts from the International Space Station are expected to fly home tomorrow after spending 172 days floating in space.
The US space agency took to Twitter to welcome their record-breaking spaceman back to terra firma, writing: ‘Touchdown!
The first animals in outer space were a group of fruit flies in 1947.
During his time working in space, Williams has seen the International Space Station (ISS) grow from a single, crew-less module to the continuously-manned orbiting laboratory that it is today.
Though the cancellation of one of NASA’s ISS-themed programs and the spike in UFO sightings around the space station might simply be a coincidence, one can not help but wonder if the alleged man-made and completely explainable UFO sightings that have been reported over the last few months really did play a part in NASA’s decision to take one of its live programs off the air.
Williams has officially spent more time in space than any other USA astronaut.
This latest mission to the ISS is Jeff’s fourth time in space, and his third long-duration stay on the space station.
During his time on the orbital complex, Williams ventured outside the confines of the space station for a second spacewalk with Rubins to retract a spare thermal control radiator and install two new high-definition cameras.
Over those 534 days, Williams has shown that he has a great photographic eye for some of Earth’s more spectacular features, sharing many of his shots on social media.
Williams first blasted to space aboard the shuttle Atlantis in 2000.
Today, the ISS is staffed by six astronauts and cosmonauts and spans the size of a football field.
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Gennady Padalka, a Russian cosmonaut, still holds the world record for space travel with 879 days.
