Russian filmmakers headed for Earth from space station
CBC
A Soyuz space capsule carrying a cosmonaut and two Russian filmmakers has separated from the International Space Station and is heading for the Earth.
The separation took place on schedule at 9:15 p.m. ET Sunday with Oleg Novitskiy, Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko aboard for a descent of about 3½ hours.
Actress Peresild and film director Shipenko rocketed to the space station on Oct. 5 for a 12-day stint on the station to film segments of a movie titled Challenge, in which a surgeon played by Peresild rushes to the space station to save a crew member who needs an urgent operation in orbit. Novitskiy, who spent more than six months aboard the space station, plays the ailing cosmonaut in the movie.
The space capsule is to land in the steppes of Kazakhstan.
Seven astronauts remain aboard the space station: Russia's Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov; Americans Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur; Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency; and Japan's Aki Hoshide.
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Israel ordered new evacuations in Gaza's southern city of Rafah on Saturday, forcing tens of thousands more people to move as it prepares to expand its military operation closer to the heavily populated central area, in defiance of growing pressure amid the war from close ally the United States and others.