ISS Expedition 50 crew safely lands in Kazakhstan after 173 days in space - Watch

NASA says the trio will land in their Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan at 7:21 a.m. EDT (5:21 p.m. Kazakhstan time).

New Delhi: NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, and his Expedition 50 crewmates Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko of Roscosmos, returned to Earth on Monday after spending 173 days aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

According to NASA, the trio, in their Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft, landed at southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan at 7:20 a.m. EDT.

Earlier, the US space agency tweeted that the trio had undocked from the space station at 3:57am ET.

NASA Television provided live coverage of space station's activities beginning at 12:15 a.m.

During their 171-day stay aboard the orbiting laboratory, together, the Expedition 50 crew members contributed to hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science.

In total, the departing trio will have spent 173 days in space since their launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan October 19 last year.

On Sunday, Apil 9, Kimbrough handed over the command of ISS to NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who remains on the station as commander of Expedition 51 along with Flight Engineers Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos and Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency.

Below - Watch Expedition 50 crew hands over the space station to Expedition 51