Three International Space Station crew members return to Earth

Two Russian cosmonauts and a US astronaut touched down safely in central Kazakhstan Monday following a 173-day mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Georgia Tech graduate Shane Kimbrough and two Russian cosmonauts undocked from the station 250 miles above the planet early Monday morning. They landed in Kazakhstan 3.5 hours later to officially end a 173-day mission that began on October 19.

Kimbrough served as commander of the ISS for the majority of the stay, joining Tim Kopra as the second Georgia Tech alumnus to hold the position in 2016. Kimbrough received his master’s degree in operations research from the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering in 1998.

Kimbrough and his crewmates traveled 73.2 million miles while in space. That’s 2,768 orbits of the Earth. Kimbrough conducted four spacewalks totaling more than 26 hours. His last one, on March 30, was the sixth of his career.

During the mission, he also captured cargo ships with a robotic arm, grew lettuce and flew a flag from Georgia Tech’s mascot, the Ramblin’ Wreck. He will fly back to Houston later today.

This was Kimbrough’s second trip to space — he flew aboard the space shuttle in 2008. Georgia Tech has 14 astronaut graduates, tied for second among public universities.

Agencies/Canadajournal