REUTERS/Dmitri Lovetsky/PoolA joint U.S., Russian and Japanese crew left the International Space Station on Saturday aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule and landed back on Earth, leaving behind three crew mates who arrived at the orbiting outpost just last week. Station commander Anatoly Ivanishin, with the Russian space agency, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Japan’s Takuya Onishi climbed inside the capsule and left the station at 8:35 p.m. EDT, a NASA TV broadcast showed. On the space station, you live in a very friendly, very good environment." Ivanishin turned over command of the space station, a $100 billion orbiting research lab, to newly arrived U.S. astronaut Shane Kimbrough. "We’re sorry we’re only here a week with you," Kimbrough told the departing crew after taking command on Friday.

Source: Standard Digital October 31, 2016 14:53 UTC