The three-member crew of Soyuz MS-28 touched down on the Kazakh steppe at 13:27 local time on 26 July, closing a 241-day mission to the International Space Station. The safe return of Russian cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikaev and NASA astronaut Chris Williams triggered a commanded change: NASA’s Jessica Meir assumed station command from Kud-Sverchkov, formally opening Expedition 75. The capsule landed 147 kilometres southeast of Dzhezkazgan, where recovery teams were on standby.

The undocking sequence had begun earlier that morning, when the spacecraft separated from the Rassvet module at 10:03 Moscow time. A four-minute-42-second braking burn slowed the vessel for re-entry. The descent module then plunged through the atmosphere, deploying its main parachute before a jarring but routine rocket-assisted touchdown. Russian search-and-rescue forces extracted the crew within minutes, and all three were reported in good condition after preliminary medical checks.

The mission, which launched on 27 November 2025, marked the first spaceflight for Mikaev and Williams and the second for Kud-Sverchkov. While aboard, the cosmonauts conducted one Russian-segment spacewalk and oversaw the arrival of two uncrewed Progress cargo ships, while Williams participated in two US-segment extravehicular activities. The joint flight continues a pattern of operational interdependence, rooted in a 2022 seat-swap agreement between Roscosmos and NASA that ensures each nation always has a crew member on the station, even as Washington and Moscow confront each other over the war in Ukraine.

After medical clearance in Karaganda, Williams was to board a NASA jet bound for the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, while Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev were headed to Star City near Moscow for rehabilitation. Aboard the station, Expedition 75 continues under Meir’s command with crewmates Jack Hathaway (NASA), Sophie Adenot (ESA), and Andrei Fedyaev (Roscosmos); they were augmented on 14 July by the arrival of a replacement Soyuz crew — Anil Menon (NASA), Pyotr Dubrov (Roscosmos), and Anna Kikina (Roscosmos) — ensuring a seamless handover. The next US-segment crew rotation is slated for September, when a NASA-sponsored mission is expected to lift off from Florida.