After six months in orbit, Frenchman Thomas Pesquet left the International Space Station on Monday evening, NASA announced.

The French, along with three other astronauts, must leave the International Space Station to begin their return to Earth, aboard a SpaceX spacecraft which is to land off Florida.

The 43-year-old astronaut spent some 200 days in orbit on his second space mission.

He arrived aboard the ISS with his teammates on April 24.

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