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Soyuz TMA-13M Returns Crew Back to Earth. / November 10, 2014 /

On 10 November 2014 at 06:58 Moscow Time, the Soyuz- TMA-13M reentry capsule landed successfully northward of Arkalyk town, Kazakhstan. The landing took place according to plan. The ISS Expedition 40/41 crew consisting of Soyuz Commander Maxim Suraev (ROSCOSMOS), NASA Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman and ESA’s Alexander Gerst returned back to Earth.
The flight marked both Wiseman’s and Gerst’s first time in space. It was the second flight for ROSCOSMOS cosmonaut Maxim Suraev. He was the Commander of Soyuz TMA-16 and lived aboard the station as Flight Engineer of the Expedition 21/22 from 30 September 2009 through March 18 March 2010. On 30 October 2010. Maxim Suraev was awarded with the title of Hero of Russia.

On 28 May 2014, M. Suraev as the Soyuz TMA-13M Commander started his second space travel to the ISS. During the Expedition, M. Suraev conducted more than 600 work sessions on 51 scientific experiments and performed a spacewalk with cosmonaut Aleksander Samokutyaev. The spacewalk lasted 3 hours and 41 minutes. The End of Mission events marked the end of six month mission, with Suraev now totalling 334 days.

Along with the crew, a space generation of fruit flies Drosophila melanogaster returned to Earth (it is the first generation reproduced after the Foton-M4 flight). The fruit flies were sent to ISS on board Progress M-25M on 29 October 2014. The main objective of the Experiment is to study the effect of zero-gravity on multicellular organism. The study is of great importance for science in the context of outer space exploration.

Before the arrival of the next expedition members to the ISS, the crewmembers Commander Barry Wolmore, NASA, Flight Engineers Alexander Samokutyaev (ROSCOSMOS) and Yelena Serova (ROSCOSMOS) will continue the mission.

Press Service of ROSCOSMOS

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