The American bears a broad grin, flashing an "OK" sign to the Russian support team tending to him after his descent from space. It's not exactly the image of two countries at extreme odds over the Ukraine crisis. But in the world of U.S.-Russian relations, space is impervious, as demonstrated by the joint effort to bring American astronaut Mike Hopkins and his cosmonaut counterparts, Soyuz Cmdr. Oleg Kotov, a native of Crimea, and fellow flight engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy, home to Earth. The Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft landed in Kazakhstan early Tuesday after the trio spent more than five months aboard the International Space Station, leaving the multinational astronaut delegation of Japan's Koichi Wakata, America's Rick Mastracchio and Russia's Mikhail Tyurin to finish the orbital laboratory's Expedition 39.
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American Mike Hopkins returns to Earth with Russian, Crimean cosmonauts
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Even if U.S., Russia are at odds, space collaboration endures, NASA says
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U.S. astronauts have no way to get to and from the International Space Station
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In return, U.S. brings money, more advanced technology to table
@placeholder conducted a pair of U.S. spacewalks for a total 12 hours and 58 minutes.