KOROLYOV. Dec 20 (Interfax-AVN) - The landing capsule of the Soyuz MS-09 manned spacecraft, where a 2 mm drilled hole was found in its orbital module in August, safely touched down in Kazakhstan at 8:02 a.m. Moscow time with Russian cosmonaut Sergei Prokopyev, NASA's Serena Maria Aunon-Chancellor and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst on board, an Interfax correspondent reported from the Mission Control Center.
"Landing has occurred," said a commentator of the broadcast at the Mission Control Center.
The crew landed south-east of Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan. Search and rescue teams were immediately dispatched to the site. They evacuated the crew from the landing capsule.
"All three Soyuz MS-08 crewmembers have been safely evacuated," the commentator said.
The spacecraft undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) at 4:40 a.m. Moscow time and started to descend. The landing module separated from the orbital module, which burned up in the Earth atmosphere.