{"id":19255,"date":"2016-09-07T00:09:48","date_gmt":"2016-09-06T16:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasas-jeff-williams-sets-record-as-he-and-space-station-crewmates-return-to-earth\/"},"modified":"2016-09-07T00:09:48","modified_gmt":"2016-09-06T16:09:48","slug":"nasas-jeff-williams-sets-record-as-he-and-space-station-crewmates-return-to-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasas-jeff-williams-sets-record-as-he-and-space-station-crewmates-return-to-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Jeff Williams sets record as he and space station crewmates return to Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jeff
NASA astronaut Jeff Williams waves to the camera after coming out of the Soyuz capsule he rode down to Earth from the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA TV)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA astronaut Jeff Williams returned to Earth from the International Space Station in the company of two Russian cosmonauts tonight, setting a U.S. spaceflight record in the process.<\/p>\n

Today marked 534 days of cumulative time in space for Williams, which makes him the \u201cmost experienced U.S. astronaut in history,\u201d NASA spokesman Rob Navias said.<\/p>\n

Now-retired astronaut Scott Kelly still holds the U.S. record for consecutive days in space (340 days), but Williams surpassed him in total time, thanks to his three long-term stays on the space station plus a shuttle flight in 2000.<\/p>\n

Williams and his Russian crewmates, Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka, touched down in the steppes of Kazakhstan just after sunrise (7:13 a.m. local time Wednesday, 6:13 p.m. PT Tuesday), nearly three and a half hours after leaving the station. NASA spokesman Dan Huot, who was reporting from the scene, said the trio\u2019s Russian Soyuz capsule made a bull\u2019s-eye landing.<\/p>\n

\"Soyuz
A Soyuz capsule descends toward the steppes of Kazakhstan. (Credit: Bill Ingalls \/ NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Soyuz
With its parachute spread wide, the Soyuz makes its touchdown. (Credit: Bill Ingalls \/ NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Soyuz
NASA\u2019s Jeff Williams and his Russian crewmates, Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka, are surrounded by their recovery team after landing. (Credit: Bill Ingalls \/ NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The three were quickly taken out of the capsule by the Russian-led recovery team, and carried to a tent for an initial round of medical screenings. Williams will head back to Houston, while Ovchinin and Skripochka will fly back to Moscow.<\/p>\n

Williams and the two Russians spent 172 days on the space station. Among the highlights of Williams\u2019 tour of duty were two spacewalks that he conducted with NASA\u2019s Kate Rubins over the past three weeks.<\/p>\n

Rubins and the two other spacefliers who are remaining aboard the station, Russia\u2019s Anatoly Ivanishin and Japan\u2019s Takuya Onishi, bade farewell to the departing trio and took pictures as they left.<\/p>\n

Williams enjoyed the view as the Soyuz backed away. \u201cStation is looking beautiful!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Later, Rubins captured an amazing photo of the blazing plasma trail that the Soyuz capsule created as it streaked through Earth\u2019s atmosphere. Trailing behind the Soyuz landing module\u2019s bright point of light were the blazing remnants of other hardware that was jettisoned by the craft.<\/p>\n

\"Soyuz
A photo taken by NASA astronaut Kate Rubins shows the Soyuz craft\u2019s fiery descent through Earth\u2019s atmosphere, followed by a blazing trail of debris. (Credit: Kate Rubins via NASA TV)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Soyuz
An image captured from the International Space Station shows the departing Soyuz. (Credit: NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A fresh trio of spacefliers \u2013 NASA\u2019s Shane Kimbrough and Russia\u2019s Andrey Borisenko and Sergey Ryzhikov \u2013 will be launched to the station from Russia\u2019s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sept. 23.<\/p>\n

Yet another crew rotation is planned in November. That\u2019s when NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson will begin her third long-duration mission on the station.<\/p>\n

Whitson is expected to break Williams\u2019 U.S. record for cumulative time in space, but she has a long way to go to match the world record: Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka has chalked up 879 days in space, the equivalent of nearly two and a half years. A dozen other Russians have logged more time than Williams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASA astronaut Jeff Williams waves to the camera after coming out of the Soyuz capsule he rode down to Earth from the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA TV) NASA astronaut Jeff Williams returned to Earth from the International Space Station in the company of two Russian cosmonauts tonight, setting a U.S. spaceflight record in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[717,190,1302],"class_list":["post-19255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-international-space-station","tag-nasa","tag-soyuz"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19255"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}