Roscosmos to bring astronaut Vande Hei back to Earth from ISS

MOSCOW. March 14 (Interfax) - The crew of the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft, including U.S. astronaut Mark Vande Hei, will return to the Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) on March 30, as planned, the Roscosmos press service said.

"U.S. astronaut Mark Vande Hei will return to the Earth on March 30 on board the Russian Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft together with Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov," the press service said.

"Roscosmos has never given a reason to doubt its reliability as a partner. The safe work of the ISS crew is our highest priority," it said.

U.S. media outlets said earlier that, given the U.S. sanctions on the Russian aerospace industry, there might be problems with the return of Vande Hei to the Earth, for which Roscosmos was responsible.

As reported earlier, the Soyuz MS-19 craft carrying Roscosmos cosmonauts Shkaplerov and Dubrov and NASA astronaut Vande Hei is due to land at 2:26 p.m. MSK on March 30.