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After spending 166 days aboard the ISS, astronauts from Expedition 36 returned to Earth their Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft near the central Kazakhstani town of Zhezkazgan. During their journey members of the mission orbited the Earth some 2,656 times, a trip that spanned 70 million miles.
According to NASA, the uncharacteristically explosive landing captured in the image above was likely the result of a retro-rocker firing to aid in the craft descent.
Image Courtesy of NASA/Bill Ingalls