02/07/2020

Soyuz MS-13 Spacecraft Safely Returns back to Earth Expedition 61 Space Crew

Three Optolink's TRS-500 fiber-optic gyroscopes, installed into control system of Descent Module of the latest Soyuz modification, Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft, successfully executed their mission during landing. The Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan on 06 February 2020, at 09:12 UTC (15:12 local time), with three-man Expedition 61 Space Crew, including Soyuz Commander Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, NASA astronaut and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano. The landing module safely landed on-target about 150 kilometers southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. The projected landing site was located at the point with coordinates: 47°22' North latitude, 69°36' East longitude.  Koch returned to Earth after logging 328 days in space — the longest spaceflight in history by a woman — as a member of Expeditions 59-60-61 on the International Space Station. Skvortsov and Parmitano returned after 201 days in space where they served as Expedition 60-61 crew members onboard the station.. This mission saw Luca Parmitano become the third European and first ever Italian in command of the Station.