Warmly wrapped in thermal blankets and with his hand raised toward the sky, Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev flashed a V for “victory” after successfully landing onto frost-covered Kazakhstani soil after a three-and-a-half-hour journey from the International Space Station. Suraev was the first of three space explorers from Expedition-40 and 41 to emerge from the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft on a frigid 23-degree Fahrenheit Monday morning. Following 165 days in orbit—a time that saw two private space endeavors burst into flames—the Soyuz’s landing was, by NASA’s account, simply “flawless.” The capsule that carried Suraev as well as the European Space Agency’s Alexander …read more
Source: The Atlantic