Russian Soyuz spacecraft brings back the 12th crew to live aboard the ISS

Russian Soyuz spacecraft brings back the 12th crew to live aboard the ISS

The news is in confirming that the 12th crew to live aboard the international Space Station has arrived safely back on Earth. They spent the last 6 months in space living on the ISS. This crew returned back with the first Brazilian Astronaut who went to the ISS along with the fresh crew now stationed on the ISS.

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carried back the Expedition 12 Commander William McArthur, flight engineer Valery Tokarev and Brazilian astronaut Marcos Pontes. They landed in the steppes of Kazakhstan at about 7:48 p.m. New York time.

The new crew is now scheduled to stay on the international space station till the month of October. European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter would join the existing crew of the ISS later this year, giving the crew a third member for the first time since May 2003.

NASA is also scheduled to send Discovery to ISS in July on the second shuttle mission since Columbia, which would carry Reiter and supplies.