ISS astronauts impressed by beauty of Kazakh steppe

ASTANA. KAZINFORM After a half a year-long expedition to the ISS, the ISS crew members were impressed by the beauty of the Kazakh steppe, Kazinform correspondent reports.

Governor of Karaganda region Yerlan Koshanov greeted Sergey Ryzhikov, Andrey Borisenko and NASA astronaut Robert Shane Kimbrough at Saryarka Airport. At a press conference held immediately after the landing, the cosmonauts told about 173 days spent in the orbit.

According to Andrey Borisenko, the crew planned to grow a pepper on the space station. Unfortunately, the equipment for this procedure did not arrive at the station.

Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft brought also the Relics of Saint Seraphim of Sarov to the Earth. Six months ago, commander of the spacecraft Sergey Ryzhikov took the relics to the orbit to consecrate the Earth and restore  peace and rest. The relics were brought back to  the ISS by the same crew and will be handed over to the Orthodox Church of the Transfiguration in Zvyozdniy Gorodok.

As 42-year-old cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov told, during the landing the crew was impressed by the beauty of the Kazakh steppe.

“A lot of pictures of the Earth and the Moon were taken from the station. The Kazakh steppe is very beautiful and we enjoyed this view,” said Ryzhikov.
Commander Ryzhikov served as a pilot, and in 2006 he was enrolled into the cosmonaut corps and received a military rank of a lieutenant-colonel.
52-year-old engineer Andrey Borisenko worked earlier at the Energy RKK which specializes in production of spacecraft as well as at the Flight Management Centre. This became the second flight for him; the first one was performed from April to September 2011.

Second engineer – 49-year-old American astronaut Robert Shane Kimbrough – served as a pilot in the U.S. Army and has a lieutenant-colonel military rank. Prior to his flight aboard of Soyuz MS-02, he had a 15-day space flight on Endeavour shuttle in 2008, during which he walked in space.

 

Recall that on April 10, 2017 at 17:21 Astana time, the capsule of the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft with  Andrey Borisenko, Sergey Ryzhikov, Robert Shane Kimbrough onboard landed in 147km southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan.