Part of Expedition 32 Lands in Kazakhstan

Three astronauts who were formerly part of the Expedition 32 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) safely landed in Kazakhstan yesterday, September 16, inside the Russian-built Soyuz TMA-04M space capsule.

Occupying the spacecraft were NASA astronaut Joseph M. Acaba, and Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin. Unlike previous crews, which spent around 6 months in space, this group only spent 4 months aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The trio departed the station at 7:09 pm EDT (2309 GMT) on Sunday evening, and landed just north of Arkalyk, in Kazakhstan, at around 10:53 pm EDT (0253 GMT Monday morning). They had spent 125 days in space, having launched towards the ISS on May 17.

Currently in command of the ISS crew is NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, which leads the newly commenced Expedition 33. She is joined by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.