A Russian Soyuz ferry ship successfully undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) and made a flawless landing in Kazakhstan, bringing a Russian cosmonaut, a Belarusian guest flier, and a NASA astronaut back to Earth. The Soyuz MS-24/70S spacecraft, commanded by Oleg Novitskiy, touched down at 3:17 a.m. EDT, approximately 90 miles east of Dzhezkazgan.

Novitskiy, accompanied by Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus and NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara, were swiftly aided by Russian recovery crews upon landing in Kazakhstan. They assisted the returning crew members as they readjusted to the gravitational force. For Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya, who spent only two weeks aboard the space station, the re-acclimation process should be relatively straightforward.

Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya launched on March 23 aboard the Soyuz MS-25/71S spacecraft, along with NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson, and docked at the ISS two days later. Their return to Earth was aboard the older Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft, which also ferried O'Hara, Oleg Kononenko, and Nikolai Chub to the space station in September last year. Kononenko and Chub are currently halfway through their year-long stay in space and plan to return next September with Dyson using the new MS-25 spacecraft delivered by Novitskiy. Meanwhile, Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya brought O'Hara back aboard the older ferry ship she launched on last September.

O'Hara, having logged 204 days off the planet, completed an impressive 3,264 orbits, covering a distance of 86.6 million miles. She also participated in a six-hour and 42-minute spacewalk. Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya, on the other hand, spent 14 days in space, completed 224 orbits, and covered 5.9 million miles.

All three crew members appeared healthy and in high spirits as they rested in recliners near their charred Soyuz descent capsule, attended to by support personnel. Vasilevskaya expressed her overwhelming emotions and gratitude, emphasizing the preciousness of the experience, while also thanking the people of Belarus for their support.

After initial medical checks and making phone calls to their families and friends via satellite, the trio is scheduled to be flown to Karaganda by helicopter. O'Hara will then return to Houston on a NASA jet, while Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya will head back to Star City near Moscow.

Left behind aboard the ISS are commander Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, Tracy Dyson, cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, and NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps. The return of O'Hara completes a complex sequence of flights aimed at replacing five of the space station's seven long-duration crew members.

The safe return of Novitskiy, Vasilevskaya, and O'Hara marks another successful mission for the international crew aboard the ISS, continuing the important work carried out in space exploration and scientific research.