03/01/2018

Soyuz MS-06 Spacecraft Safely Returns back to Earth Expedition 54 Space Crew

Three Optolink's TRS-500 fiber-optic gyroscopes, installed into control system of Descent Module of the latest Soyuz modification, Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft, successfully executed their mission during landing. Expedition 54 Flight Engineers Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba of NASA and Commander Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos have returned from the International Space Station (ISS) in their Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft.  The Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft with a Russian-American crew trio on board parachuted to a safe rocket-cushioned landing on the snow-covered steppe of Kazakhstan on February 28, 2018 at 02:13 local time in Kazakhstan, on-target 146 kilometers south-east from the town of Dzhezkazgan  after a 114.5-million-Kilometer mission circling the Earth 2,688 times over 168 days.  During their 168 days in space, they were part of the first expedition that began a long-term increase in the crew size on the U.S. segment from three people to four, enabling NASA to double the time dedicated to research – surpassing 100 hours of research in one week.