MOSCOW, November 7 (RIA Novosti) - The spacecraft Soyuz is due to return to Earth from its mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on November 10, Colonel Yaroslav Roshupkin, Assistant Commander for the Central Military District of Russia, told journalists on Friday.
“The touchdown of the spacecraft is planned for November 10, at 6:57 MSK, in an area close to the Kazakh town of Arkalyk,” said Roshupkin.
Roshupkin added that a group of military experts trained in emergency services from the Central Military District had already gathered in Kazakhstan, preparing for the landing and any eventualities. Around 300 servicemen, 14 Mi-8 helicopters, two An-26 planes and six search and rescue machines have been deployed in the landing effort.
The ship’s crew comprises commander Maksim Suraev of the Russian Space Agency, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst. The three have been in orbit since May 28 this year, and have also been sharing their spacecraft with a sample of fruit flies. The flies found themselves in space as part of an investigation into the effect of weightlessness on the development of multicellular organisms.
At the pre-launch press conference in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, a journalist put the question of political tension between their respective countries to the astronauts. “Is there any place for politics in space,” they were asked. The international crew demonstrated their togetherness by standing up and heartily embracing each other. “That’s our answer,” they replied.
Also at the conference the team became the first in history to take a selfie before their launch, which they posted to Twitter. Suraev previously made the history books as the first cosmic blogger, when during his first flight in space he kept a diary which was published on the Russian Space Agency website. While on the current mission he has regularly made updates to his Twitter account and posted photos from space.
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