On September 12 at 00:51 UTC the Russian “Soyuz TMA-16M” landing capsule landed safely in a distance of 146 kilometers south-east from the city of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. The spacecraft delivered to Earth the crew of 3 members: Russian cosmonaut Gennadiy Padalka a member of Expedition 44; Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen and Kazakhstan cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov both the members of Guest Expedition 18.

Gennadiy Padalka spent in space 168 days 05 hours 08 minutes and 37 seconds. Andreas Mogensen and Aidyn Aimbetov spent in space 9 days 20 hours 13 minutes and 51 seconds. Six other ISS crew members – Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko, Oleg Kononenko, Sergey Volkov; American astronauts Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren as well as Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui remained in orbit aboard the International Space Station as the Expedition 45 crew. The undocking of Soyuz TMA-16M marked the end of Expedition 44 and the start of Expedition 45.

This was Padalka’s fifth space flight, giving him a total time spent in space of 878 days 11 hours 29 minutes and 51 seconds, more than two months longer than the previous record set by Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev.