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A Russian Soyuz spacecraft on Wednesday brought a Russian cosmonaut and US and Japanese astronauts safely back to Earth on the steppe of Kazakhstan after a five-and-a-half month stay in space.
Russian Oleg Kotov, Soichi Noguchi of Japan and US astronaut Timothy Creamer "landed southeast of Kazakhstan's town of Jezkazgan" as they returned from the International Space Station (ISS), said Russia's Mission Control outside Moscow.
Television pictures showed the capsule carrying the astronauts being guided by a parachute and producing a plume of dust as it touched down under clear blue skies.
The trio, still strapped to their seats and covered with blankets, were given apples -- a traditional welcome-back gesture -- as doctors and rescuers swarmed around to conduct regular checks and help adjust them to gravity.
Broadly smiling, the astronauts joined hands with each other and gave thumbs-up signs as they posed for cameras.
"A very good landing. Everyone feels excellent," the chief of Russia's space agency Anatoly Perminov told reporters.
Russian Oleg Kotov, Soichi Noguchi of Japan and US astronaut Timothy Creamer "landed southeast of Kazakhstan's town of Jezkazgan" as they returned from the International Space Station (ISS), said Russia's Mission Control outside Moscow.
Television pictures showed the capsule carrying the astronauts being guided by a parachute and producing a plume of dust as it touched down under clear blue skies.
The trio, still strapped to their seats and covered with blankets, were given apples -- a traditional welcome-back gesture -- as doctors and rescuers swarmed around to conduct regular checks and help adjust them to gravity.
Broadly smiling, the astronauts joined hands with each other and gave thumbs-up signs as they posed for cameras.
"A very good landing. Everyone feels excellent," the chief of Russia's space agency Anatoly Perminov told reporters.