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Robert Pearlman
Soyuz MS-24 departs space station
On Friday (April 5) at 11:54 p.m. EDT (0354 GMT April 6), Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus, undocked from the International Space Station on board the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft to begin their journey back to Earth.
The Soyuz is heading for a parachute-assisted landing on Saturday on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan. The touchdown is scheduled for 3:17 a.m. EDT (0717 GMT or 12:17 p.m. local time).
Robert Pearlman
Soyuz MS-24 crew returns from space station
Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara and Belarus spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya returned to Earth from the International Space Station on Saturday.
The trio made a safe, parachute-assisted landing aboard Russia's Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft at 3:17 a.m. EDT (0717 GMT or 12:17 p.m. local time), southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.
O'Hara launched on Sept. 15, 2023, alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, who both will remain aboard the space station to complete a one-year mission. Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya launched aboard Soyuz MS-25 on March 23 along with NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson, who will remain aboard the orbiting laboratory until this fall.
O'Hara spent a total of 204 days in space as part of her first spaceflight. Novitskiy has logged a total of 545 days in space across four spaceflights and Vasilevskaya has spent 14 days in space as part of her first spaceflight.
Supporting NASA's Artemis campaign, O'Hara's mission helped prepare for exploration of the moon and build foundations for crewed missions to Mars. She completed approximately 3,264 orbits of Earth and a journey of more than 86.5 million miles. O'Hara worked on scientific activities aboard the space station, including investigating heart health, cancer treatments and space manufacturing techniques during her stay aboard the orbiting laboratory.
Following post-landing medical checks, the crew returned to the recovery staging city in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. O'Hara then boarded a NASA plane bound for her return to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
With the undocking of the Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft with O'Hara, Novitskiy and Vasilevskaya, Expedition 71 officially began aboard the station. Led by Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko as commander, the crew is comprised by Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub and Alexander Grebenkin, as well as NASA astronauts Michael Barratt, Matthew Dominick, Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Jeannette Epps and will remain on the orbiting laboratory until this fall.
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