Astronauts Return To Earth Aboard Soyuz MS-28 After 241 Days On Space Station

Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft, carrying NASA astronaut Chris Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev, returned to Earth at 1027 UTC, July 26, 2026, after a 241-day mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), concluding the Expedition 74 crew rotation. The capsule undocked from the station’s Rassvet module at 0703 UTC and executed a parachute-assisted landing on the Kazakh steppe southeast of Dzhezkaz.

The crew's departure activities began on Saturday morning with a change-of-command ceremony aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Kud‑Sverchkov handed over the reins of the orbiting lab to NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, part of the transition from ISS Expedition 74 to Expedition 75 (which officially began when Soyuz MS‑28 undocked). The crew then gave their farewells and closed the hatches between the ISS and Soyuz MS-28 on Saturday night.

Following a fiery re-entry and a 10-minute descent under parachutes, the crew was recovered by Russian teams who provided medical checks and traditional matryoshka dolls bearing their likenesses. Williams was flown to Karaganda and then to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, while the cosmonauts returned to Star City near Moscow.

The crew completed 3,856 orbits covering 164 million kilometers, marking the first spaceflight for Williams and Mikaev, and the second for Kud-Sverchkov, who previously served on Expedition 64-65 (2020–2021) and now has logged 426 days and 9 minutes in space.

William, a former medical physicist and astrophysicist, conducted two spacewalks to replace a joint on the station’s robotic arm and prepare for new solar blanket installations, while also participating in research on cancer treatments and in-space manufacturing. Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev also performed maintenance spacewalks outside the Russian segment of the station.

The departure marked the beginning of Expedition 75, commanded by Meir. The new crew, consisting of Anil Menon, Pyotr Dubrov, and Anna Kikina, arrived at the ISS on July 14 via Soyuz MS-29. Soyuz MS-28 launched to the ISS on Nov. 27, which was Thanksgiving Day.