Expedition 72 Soyuz MS-26 Crew Landing in Kazakhstan & Return Home

Expedition 72 Soyuz MS-26 Crew Landing in Kazakhstan & Return Home

NASA astronaut, Don Pettit, center, with Rainer Effenhauser, right, and Richard Scheuring, background, during a brief layover in Prestwick, Scotland during his return flight to Houston, Texas, from Karaganda, Kazakhstan, Sunday, April 20, 2025.

Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin of Russia is seen outside the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft after he landed with Roscosmos cosmonaut Ivan Vagner, and NASA astronaut Don Pettit in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Sunday, April 20, 2025, (April 19 Eastern).

Roscosmos cosmonaut Ivan Vagner of Russia is seen outside the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft after he landed with NASA astronaut Don Pettit and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Sunday, April 20, 2025, (April 19 Eastern).

NASA astronaut Don Pettit, left, Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin (Russia), center, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Ivan Vagner (Russia) are seen inside the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft after they landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Sunday, April 20, 2025, (April 19 Eastern).

Russian support personnel work around the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft shortly after it landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 72 NASA astronaut Don Pettit, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner of Russia aboard, Sunday, April 20, 2025, (April 19 Eastern).

Russian Search and Rescue teams arrive at the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft shortly after it landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan with Expedition 72 NASA astronaut Don Pettit, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner of Russia aboard, Sunday, April 20, 2025, (April 19 Eastern).

Roscosmos cosmonaut Ivan Vagner of Russia is seen inside the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft minutes after he, Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin of Russia, and NASA astronaut Don Pettit, landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Sunday, April 20, 2025, (April 19 Eastern).

Roscosmos cosmonaut Ivan Vagner of Russia is helped out of the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft just minutes after he, Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin of Russia, and NASA astronaut Don Pettit, landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Sunday, April 20, 2025, (April 19 Eastern).

At 9:20 p.m. EDT, April 19, 2025, (6:20 a.m. Kazakhstan time, Sunday, April 20), the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft made a parachute-assisted landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Zhezkazgan.

Spanning 220 days in space, NASA astronaut Don Pettit and his crewmates, Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner of Russia, orbited the Earth 3,520 times and completed a journey of 93.3 million miles over the course of their International Space Station mission. Pettit returned on his 70th birthday! The Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft launched and docked to the station on Sept. 11, 2024.

This was Pettit’s fourth spaceflight, where he served as flight engineer for Expedition 71 and 72. He has a career total of 590 days in orbit. Ovchinin completed his fourth flight in space, totaling 595 days, and Vagner has earned an overall total of 416 days in space during two trips to the orbiting laboratory.

The three crew members later flew on a helicopter from the landing site to the recovery staging city of Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Pettit then boarded a NASA plane for his return to Houston, while Ovchinin and Vagner departed for a training center in Star City, Russia.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Capture Date: April 19, 2024

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