A Japanese billionaire was to return to Earth Monday after spending 12 days on the International Space Station, where he made videos about performing mundane tasks in space including brushing teeth and going to the bathroom.
Online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano parachuted onto Kazakhstan's steppe at around the expected landing time of 0313 GMT Monday, along with Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.
Russia's defence ministry had said on Sunday that Maezawa and Hirano were set to be surprised by recovery crews with a traditional Japanese noodle dish. Addressing his one million followers on YouTube, the 46-year-old billionaire explained how to brush teeth and go to the bathroom in space."Peeing is very easy," he said as he demonstrated a handheld funnel astronauts use to suck their urine away.When the three space travellers arrived on the ISS on December 8, they joined a seven-team crew who were engaged in space biology and physics research.
The last was Canada's Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberte in 2009, who was dubbed the first clown in space. NASA bought up all Soyuz launch seats for a reported $90 million per spot -- effectively ending tourist flights.
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