More than three hours after the Soyuz capsule undocked from the International Space Station on Wednesday, the spacecraft appeared in Earth's atmosphere — the striped parachute backlit by the bright blue sky over grasslands in Kazakhstan.
After the landing, crews quickly worked to pull the three astronauts out of the capsule and carry them to reclining chairs.
"Beautiful out here," said Mark Vande Hei, a graduate of Minnesota's Benilde-St. Margaret's and St. John's University, before he slid on sunglasses and a baseball cap.
A small NASA team of doctors was on hand for the touchdown and planned to return immediately to Houston with the 55-year-old astronaut, much to the relief of Vande Hei's father, Tom Vande Hei, who watched his son's return Wednesday morning.
"He looked good," said Tom Vande Hei, who lives in Chanhassen with his wife, Mary.
Neither he nor Mary, Tom Vande Hei said, got much sleep Tuesday night. "It's been a stressful time."
Despite escalating tensions between the U.S. and Russia and a threat from the head of Russia's space program to leave Vande Hei stranded in space, his return followed customary procedures.
Even before Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Vande Hei said he was avoiding the subject with his two Russian crewmates. Despite getting along "fantastically … I'm not sure we really want to go there," he said.
