Russian Soyuz spacecraft brings crew back to earth

 

Soyuz Commander Oleg Novitskiy (left), Belarusian guest flier Marina Vasilevskaya and NASA astronaut Loral O'Hara (right) bid their space station crewmates farewell before boarding their Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft for the flight back to Earth.

Russian recovery crews were on the scene within minutes to assist the returning station fliers out of their cramped Soyuz descent module as they began re-adjusting to the tug of gravity.