A NASA astronaut made it back to the Earth in a Russian capsule after 355 days at the International Space Station. Mark Vande Hei and two cosmonauts touched down on Wednesday, in a world torn by war.
NASA Astronaut and two cosmonauts return to earth
Mark Vande Hei landed in Kazakhstan in a Soyuz capsule along with Russian Space Agency’s Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov. Vande Hei and Dubrov spent the last year in space, since launching on April 9, 2021. However, Shakaplerov joined the two in October and they doubled their stay for accomodating the visit. before leaving the space station, Shkaplerov called his fellow astronauts his “space brothers and space sister”. “It’s beautiful out here,” stated Vande Hei, after putting on a ballcap and a face mask.
Vande Hei‘s return to Earth followed customary procedures despite the tensions between Russia and the US over the invasion of Ukraine. A team of NASA doctors and staff were awaiting his touchdown and are planning to return to Houston as soon as possible. He surpassed NASA’s record for the longest single spaceflight by 15 days.
Life in space and wars on earth
Before his return, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Vande Hei revealed that he is avoiding the matter with his Russian crewmates. They were getting along “fantastically” but, he was “not sure we really want to go there,” stated the astronaut.
“People have problems on Earth. On-orbit, we are one crew,” stated Shkaplerov in a live NASA TV interview. According to him, the space station is a token of “friendship and cooperation and … future of exploration of space”. The tensions from the war are bubbling over to areas of space. European satellite launches on Russian rockets are coming to a halt. Additionally, the Europe-Russia mars rover is going to be on earth for two more years.