06/04/2018

Soyuz MS-07 Spacecraft Safely Returns back to Earth Expedition 55 Space Crew

Three Optolink's TRS500 fiber-optic gyroscopes, installed into control system of Descent Module of the latest Soyuz modification, Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft, successfully executed their mission during landing. Three members of the International Space Station’s Expedition 54/55 crew returned to Earth inside the Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft after having spent 168 days in orbit. Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, NASA astronaut Scott Tingle and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Norishige Kanai safely soft-landed at 8:39 a.m. EDT (12:39 GMT) June 3, 2018, on the Kazakh Steppe in Kazakhstan some 280 miles (450 kilometers) northeast of Baikonur Cosmodrome where the trio launched in December 2017. Trio head home from ISS along with an Adidas Telstar 18 football that is planned to be used during the opening game of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Moscow on June 14.