Nasa astronaut Don Pettit returned to Earth from the International Space Station – coincidentally on his 70th birthday – aboard the Russian Suyoz spacecraft early on Sunday morning.
The Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft carrying Mr Pettit and his crewmates – Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner – made a parachute-assisted landing on a Kazakh steppe at about 6.20am local time (1.20am GMT).
The trio returned after spending 220 days in space and orbiting the Earth 3,520 times, Nasa said in a statement.
They will spend time in the recovery staging city of Karaganda, Kazakhstan, after which Mr Pettit will board a Nasa plane to Houston, while Ovchinin and Vagner will travel to Star City, Russia.
Some space observers raised concerns about Mr Pettit’s health following his return, as Nasa’s live coverage of the landing was abruptly cut short after the 70-year-old astronaut was extracted from the capsule.
“The awesome Don Pettit, who turned 70 today, appeared less than fully well on extraction from the capsule – hopefully nothing serious,” Astronomer Jonathan McDowell wrote in a post on X.
Nasa said it is conducting routine post-landing medical checks, adding that Mr Pettit is “doing well” and “in the range of what is expected” following his return to Earth.
Mr Pettit is a spaceflight veteran and has completed four spaceflight missions, serving as flight engineer for Expeditions 71 and 72.
He is renowned for the variety of photographs he has taken from the space station, including those of rare space weather phenomena like dazzling auroras and strange flashes of lightning.
A recent video he shared on X from the International Space Station (ISS) showed dazzling green auroras glowing below the station as it flew over the southern hemisphere.
In another post on X, he shared a brief six-second video capturing flashes of upper-atmospheric lightning directly beneath the space station.
Nasa astronaut, Anne McClain, who is currently aboard the ISS, shared on X that his departure from the orbiting laboratory marks the “end of an era”.
“Most of you are quite familiar with his mastery of the camera, the multiple settings and lenses he used over the past months to bring you all the incredible views of our shared home planet,” Ms McClain said.
“The auroras will dance, the stars will shine, and the moon will rise without him, but man … it just won’t be the same,” Ms McClain said.
