Three astronauts touched down in the dark, chilly expanses of central Kazakhstan onboard a Soyuz capsule on Monday after a 125-day stay at the International Space Station.
Nasa’s Sunita Williams, Russian astronaut Yury Malenchenko and Aki Hoshide of Japan’s JAXA space agency landed at 7.56am local time northeast of the town of Arkalyk.
Eight helicopters rushed search-and-recovery crew to assist the crew, whose capsule did not parachute onto the exact planned touchdown site due to a minimal delay in procedures.
With the departure of the outgoing crew, Nasa astronaut Kevin Ford has taken command of the space station, where he remains with Russian colleagues Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin. They will be joined next month by Nasa’s Tom Marshburn, Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency, and Russia’s Roman Romanenko.
The Soyuz is the only means for international astronauts to reach the orbiting laboratory since the decommissioning of the US shuttle fleet last year.
Williams, Malenchenko and Hoshide undocked from the space station on Sunday at 10.23 GMT to begin their return to earth.
Around 28 minutes before touchdown, the three modules of the Soyuz craft separated, leaving the 2.1-metre tall capsule to begin its entry into orbit.