Three International Space Station (ISS) crewmembers returned to Earth safely, but not without an extended tense moment between departure and touchdown.
According to CBS News, one NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts lost communication with ground control in Kazakhstan on their way down. Alexander Samokutyaev, the cosmonaut commanding the spacecraft, was able to communicate late in the descent that everyone on board was fine.
The landing was almost 10 minutes behind schedule due to heavy, icy fog on the ground. Still, Russian recovery crews confirmed the spacecraft landed safely and in the proper position.
"It's not many jobs that you have the opportunity to return from work in a 17,000-mile-an-hour fireball," Butch Wilmore, a NASA commander, told CBS News before leaving the ISS. "This is one of those opportunities! To be honest, I'm not a thrill seeker by any means, but a unique experience like that, I do look forward to it, literally coming back in a fireball."
Wilmore led the Expedition 42 spacewalk that recently rewired the ISS' exterior to make room for a second docking station. Samokutyaev and his fellow Russian cosmonaut Elena Serova joined Wilmore on the returning capsule.
In Wilmore's place, NASA astronaut Terry Virts will lead expedition 43. Virts, cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti are the only three crewmembers currently occupying the ISS, CBS News reported.
NASA said in a press release that astronaut Scott Kelly will accompany cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka to fly up to the ISS aboard a Soyuz rocket scheduled to leave Kazakhstan on March 27.
