A Russian commander, a NASA co-pilot and a first-time flier from the United Arab Emirates undocked from the International Space Station early Thursday, plunging back to Earth for a landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan.
KHOU 11 News streamed it live. Watch the video here (skip to 1:04:00 to see the landing):
Hooks and latches holding the Soyuz MS-12/58S ferry ship to the space station's Rassvet module disengaged at 2:37 a.m. Houston/Central time, allowing powerful springs to push the craft smoothly away.
Strapped into the spacecraft's central crew module were vehicle commander Alexey Ovchinin, NASA flight engineer Nick Hague and "spaceflight participant" Hazzaa Ali Almansoori. Ovchinin and Hague, launched to the station on March 14, were closing out a 203-day mission while Almansoori, a guest cosmonaut who arrived at the outpost Sept. 25, was wrapping up a relatively short eight-day visit.
After moving the Soyuz a safe distance away from the station, Ovchinin and Hague planned to monitor a four-minute 42-second rocket firing starting at 6:06 a.m. The braking burn was designed to slow the ship by about 286 mph, just enough to drop the far side of the orbit deep into the atmosphere for a landing in Kazakhstan.
They safely touched down at 6 a.m. Houston/Central time.
For Ovchinin and Hague, touchdown marked the end of a year-long space odyssey that began with a launch attempt in October 2018. Two minutes after liftoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the normally reliable Soyuz booster suffered a catastrophic malfunction, triggering an emergency abort. Ovchinin and Hague landed safely a few hundred miles down range after a 19-minute ride.
It was a crushing disappointment for Ovchinin and Hague and a frightening experience for their families.
But the Russians quickly found and fixed the problem and resumed Soyuz flights two months later. Hague and Ovchinin were reassigned to the Soyuz MS-12/58S spacecraft, along with NASA astronaut Christina Koch, and finally made it into orbit on March 14.
CBS NEWS contributed to this report