3 ISS astronauts return to Earth safely
Washington, June 3: Three members of the International Space Station Expedition 55 crew returned safely to Earth on Sunday after nearly half a year-long stint in speace.
American astronaut Scott Tingle, Japanese astronaut Norishige Kanai and Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov had lived and worked in a low-Earth orbit for 168 days.
"Touchdown! @Anton_Astrey, @Astro_Kanai and @Astro_Maker are back on Earth after parachuting to a landing in Kazakhstan today at 8:39 a.m ET (6:39pm Kazakh time)," International Space Station said in a tweet.
Expedition 55 Flight Engineers Tingle, Kanai and Shkaplerov undocked from the International Space Station at 5:16 a.m. EDT to begin their trip home, NASA said in a blogpost.
This mission was the first for Tingle and Kanai, and Shkaplerov now has logged 532 days in space on three flights.
The crew completed hundreds of experiments, including materials testing, a study of the effect of microgravity on the bone marrow and research into plant growth in space.
Tingle and Kanai ventured outside the station on separate spacewalks to perform work on parts of the Canadarm2 robotic arm.
They also participated in dozens of educational events as part of NASA's Year of Education on Station.
Shkaplerov conducted a record-setting spacewalk in February with fellow cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin to replace an electronics box for a communications antenna on the Zvezda service module.
The spacewalk timed out at 8 hours and 13 minutes -- the longest in Russian space program history.
The Expedition 56 crew -- Commander Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold of NASA, and Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos -- will operate the station and prepare for the arrival of three new crew members on June 8.
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Five Naxalites killed, 2 security personnel injured in encounter in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region
Raipur (PTI): Five Naxalites were killed and two security personnel injured in an anti-insurgency operation in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region on Saturday, a senior police official said.
The gunfight broke out at around 8 am in a forest in north Abujhmad along the border of Narayanpur and Kanker districts when a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation, he said.
Personnel belonging to the Border Security Force (BSF), District Reserve Guard (DRG) and Special Task Force (STF) are involved in the operation, he said.
The bodies of five Naxalites and a cache of firearms have been recovered from the spot so far, the official said, adding that a search operation is still underway in the area.
Two security personnel sustained injuries in the exchange of fire. They have been shifted to the state capital Raipur for treatment and are out of danger, he said.
Including this incident, the bodies of 197 Naxalites have been recovered so far this year following separate encounters in the state’s Bastar region, comprising seven districts including Kanker and Narayanpur, police said.
