ISS crew land after 200 days in space
AN INTERNATIONAL Space Station crew has landed safely in Kazakhstan after more than 200 days in space, to a world in a grip of a pandemic that didn’t exist when they blasted off.
The Soyuz capsule carrying Nasa astronauts Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir and Russian space agency Roscosmos’s Oleg Skripochka touched down yesterday near the town of Dzhezkazgan.
The capsule landed under a striped orange-and-white parachute about 93 miles southeast of Dzhezkazgan in central Kazakhstan.
Russian officials said they took stringent measures to protect the crew amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The recovery team and medical personnel assigned to help the crew out of the capsule and for post-flight checks had been under close medical observation for nearly a month, including tests for coronavirus.
The space crew smiled as they talked to medical experts wearing masks. Following a quick check-up, the crew will be flown by helicopters to Baikonur, from where Mr Skripochka will be taken to Moscow, said Vyacheslav Rogozhnikov, a Russian medical official who oversaw the crew’s return.
Mr Morgan and Ms Meir will have to be driven from Baikonur to Kyzyl-Orda, 190 miles away, to board a flight to the US – a strenuous journey made necessary by Kazakhstan’s quarantine measures.
On Thursday, the Russian government coronavirus headquarters reported the first contagion at Star City, which serves as the main hub for pre-flight training of US, Russian and other international crew members of the International Space Station.
Star City also has residential quarters for cosmonauts and support staff.
Roscosmos director Dmitry Rogozin said on Wednesday that the Russian space corporation had 30 coronavirus cases.
Speaking from the orbiting outpost before the return, the crew said that coming back to an Earth drastically changed by the pandemic would be challenging.
Mr Morgan said the crew has tried to keep up with the coronavirus news, but added it was hard to comprehend what was really going on.
“It is quite surreal for us to see this whole situation unfolding on the planet below,” said Ms Meir.
“We can tell you that the Earth still looks just as stunning as always from up here, so it’s difficult to believe all the changes that have taken place since both of us have been up here.”
A new crew comprising Nasa’s Chris Cassidy and Russians Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner arrived at the station on April 9.
They said before blast-off that they had been under a very strict quarantine for a month before the flight and were feeling good.