ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, NASA astronaut Terry Virts and Russian commander Anton Shkaplerov landed in the Kazakh steppe after a three-hour ride in their Soyuz spacecraft 11 June 2015. They left the International Space Station at 10:20 GMT at the end of their six-month stay on the research complex.<br /><br />Soyuz TMA-15M braked from the Station’s cruising speed of almost 28 800 km/h and entered the atmosphere six hours later. The small descent module separated as planned and parachutes deployed to slow the vehicle down even more.<br /><br />The module fired retrorockets moments before landing and springs in the moulded seats reduced the impact of hitting the steppe at 13:44 GMT. Teams were on hand within minutes to help them out.
