The Russian spacecraft Soyuz MS-23 and its crew returned to Earth on Wednesday, specifically in Kazakhstan, after a 6-month delay and spending more than a year in space.

The ship carried Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev (48), Dmitry Petelin (40), and American astronaut Frank Rubio (47), who broke the record for the longest single spaceflight by an American.

Arrival of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft capsule in Kazakhstan. September 27, 2023 - Reuters

The spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station one minute before its scheduled time, and its journey took about 3.5 hours to reach Earth.

The return trip of the astronauts was delayed by 6 months because their original spacecraft, the Russian Soyuz MS-22, had a leak that caused a pressure drop in the outer loop of the radiator of the thermal control system on December 15 last year. Therefore, the unmanned Russian Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft was sent to the International Space Station to retrieve the astronauts. The crew set a record for the duration of a single spaceflight after spending 371 days on the International Space Station, according to Sputnik news agency.

Staying at the International Space Station is the crew of Expedition 70, which includes Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, Konstantin Borisov, Americans Loral O'Hara, Jasmin Moghbeli, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, and Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa.