September 11, 2014

Image Caption: Ground support personnel are seen at the landing site after the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft landed with Expedition 40 Commander Steve Swanson of NASA, and Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan on Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014. Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev returned to Earth after more than five months onboard the International Space Station where they served as members of the Expedition 39 and 40 crews. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ Three crew members from the International Space Station (ISS) returned to Earth Wednesday after 169 days of science and technology research in space, including a record 82 hours of research in a single week, which happened in July.

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Expedition 40 Commander Steve Swanson of NASA and Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) touched down southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan at 10:23 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Sept. 10 (8:23 a.m., Sept. 11, in Dzhezkazgan).

[ Watch the Video: Expedition 40 Undocks, Ending Mission ]

During their time aboard the space station, the crew members participated in a variety of research focusing on Earth remote sensing, human behavior and performance and studies of bone and muscle physiology.

One of several key research focus areas during Expedition 40 was human health management for long duration space travel as NASA and Roscosmos prepare for two crew members to spend one year aboard the orbiting laboratory in 2015.

During their time on the station, the crew members orbited Earth more than 2,700 times, traveled more than 71.7 million miles and welcomed five cargo spacecraft. Two Russian ISS Progress cargo spacecraft docked to the station bringing tons of supplies in April and July. The fifth and final European Space Agency (ESA) Automated Transfer Vehicle also launched to the station in July with the spacecraft bearing the name of Belgian physicist Georges Lemaitre, who is considered the father of the big-bang theory.

SpaceX launched a Dragon cargo spacecraft to the station in April, the companys third of at least 12 planned commercial resupply missions. In July, Orbital Sciences Cygnus spacecraft completed its third of at least eight resupply missions scheduled through 2016 under NASAs Commercial Resupply Services contract.

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Space Station Expedition 40 Crew Returns To Earth, Lands Safely In Kazakhstan