But after seeing footage of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft crash down on the remote Kazakh Steppe 10 years ago, photographer Andrew McConnell became more enraptured by astronauts’ unceremonious return to Earth.
With the help of local photographers, McConnell contacted the crew that intercepts the capsules after their three-and-a-half-hour journey to Earth.
A shepherd on the Kazakh Steppe, where Soyuz craft land after their journey from the Earth's thermosphere.
Andrew McConnell“This little white car appeared on the horizon, and it drove up to us, weaving through these massive Russian Air Force helicopters that were sitting on the steppe,” McConnell recalled.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos now operates a similar facility on its own soil, in Siberia, rendering the Baikonur Cosmodrome increasingly obsolete.
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