After spending several months onboard the International Space Station conducting science experiments and risky spacewalks, NASA astronauts Drew Morgan and Jessica Meir and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka of Expedition 62 finally returned to Earth this past week.
The three rode down from the International Space Station inside of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, leaving NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner aboard the International Space Station.
The Expedition 62 crew members landed safely via parachute in the open lands of Kazakhstan where recovery crews awaited their arrival. Recovery crew members were wearing face masks in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the infamous respiratory disease that took the world by storm while the astronauts and cosmonaut were in outer space.
The International Space Station isn’t poised to see more inhabitants until the end of May, which is when NASA plans to permit to SpaceX to ferry two American astronauts to the International Space Station for the first time. This will mark the first crewed space launch from American soil since the Space Shuttle era.
Related: Here’s why China was banned from the International Space Station
