On October 30, 2016 at 03:58 UTC the Russian “Soyuz MS” landing capsule landed safely in a distance of about 150 kilometers from the city of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.

The spacecraft delivered to Earth the 3 members of ISS’s Expedition 49 – Russian cosmonaut Anatoliy Ivanishin, Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi (大西 卓哉) and American astronaut Kathleen Rubins. They spent in space 115 days. Three other ISS crew members – Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrei Borisenko as well as American astronaut Robert Kimbrough remained in orbit aboard the International Space Station as the Expedition 50 crew. The undocking of Soyuz MS marked the end of Expedition 49 and the start of Expedition 50. The “Soyuz MS” spacecraft was the first in a new series of upgraded spacecraft, featuring improved communications, navigation and propulsion systems, along with increased redundancy. While two other space vehicles of “Soyuz MS” series have been launched to this point, Ivanishin’s crew was the first to put the upgraded spacecraft through its paces for re-entry and landing.