NASA Astronaut Has Left International Space Station In Russian Spacecraft To Return To Earth

A NASA astronaut has left the International Space Station in a Russian spacecraft to return to Earth after spending a record-breaking number of days in space.

US astronaut Mark Vande Hei will return from the the International Space Station (ISS) today (30 March) with two Russian astronauts. 

Vande Hei, Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov boarded a Russian Soyuz MS-19 and will land in Kazakhstan.

The Russian craft undocked from the ISS at 8.21am (UK time), ending the astronauts' mission aboard the ISS. They are expected to land back on Earth at 12.28pm.

Vande Hei recently broke the US record for the most consecutive days in space - having spent a record-smashing 355 days in space. You can watch him leave the ISS here:

Vande Hei and Dubrov launched last April - months before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

When asked if there had been any tensions between the crew, Vande Hei said they had avoided conversations about Russia and Ukraine, admitted they ‘haven’t talked about that too much’. 

He added: “I’m not sure we really want to go there.”

While Shkaplerov said: "People have problems on Earth. On orbit, we are one crew, and I think ISS is like a symbol of the friendship, cooperation (and) our flexible future of exploration of space. 

“Thank you very much, my crew members. You are like my space brothers and space sister."

Earlier this month, concerns were raised after the head of Russia's Space Agency threatened to leave Vande Hei in space after US President Joe Biden sanctioned the country. 

Biden announced he was going to cut more than half of Russia's high-tech imports following, saying that the sanctions would 'degrade their aerospace industry, including their space program'.

NASA later confirmed 'no changes are planned' in regards to the cooperation of the US and Russia in space, where the two countries have collaborated to construct and maintain the International Space Station (ISS), but Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia's Space Agency, responded to Biden's sanctions with fury.

Rogozin, who is a close ally to President Vladimir Putin, responded to Biden's announcements on Twitter and threatened to abandon NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei in space.

He also threatened to detach Russia's segment of the space station altogether, and claimed the ISS would crash into America without Russia's help to move it away from space junk.

Former astronaut Scott Kelly slammed Rogozin's threats online, telling ABC News he was 'just enraged that he, the [cosmonauts], said that they were going to leave an American crew member behind'.

'I never thought I would ever hear anything so outrageous,' he said.

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Topics: NASA, Russia, Ukraine, US News

Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at UNILAD who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats.