Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft with 3 crew members lands safely after completing mission on International Space Station (VIDEO)

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan returned from the International Space Station (ISS) and landed safely in Kazakhstan.

All three space explorers were part of the Expedition 62 aboard the ISS. Skripochka and Meir arrived at the space station in September of last year, while Morgan had been working at the ISS since July 2019.

Before leaving the space station for Earth, Skripochka handed over command of the ISS to NASA’s Christopher Cassidy.

The Expedition 62 crew is the first group of people to return to Earth amid lockdowns and quarantines brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It is quite surreal for us to see this whole situation unfolding on the planet below,” Meir told journalists last week as the crew was preparing to head home.

The authorities took extra precautions in order not to infect the crew with the coronavirus. Kazakhstani officials said the response team, which was the first to meet the space travelers on the ground, had undergone quarantine and testing for Covid-19.

Contact between the crew and other people will also be limited, which means it will take longer for them to greet their families in person. Health monitoring and the program to re-adjust to life back on Earth have also been altered due to the pandemic.

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