After spending around two years in the space, two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut has finally made a successful comeback on Earth.
Russians Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky and NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins on Tuesday landed back on Earth in Kazakhstan after a stay of more than half a year aboard the International Space Station, mission control said.
They touched down in their Soyuz capsule at 0324 GMT outside Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan.
The mission control said that initially the undocking and landing of the spacecraft was postponed due to bad weather conditions but later on they were allowed to go ahead and landing had proceeded on schedule.
The three spacemen were extracted from the capsule in good shape and wrapped with blankets to protect them from the fierce early-morning cold on the snowy Kazakh steppe.
The space men were due to undergo medical checks ups on the spot before being flown by helicopter to the Kazakh city of Karaganda.
They said they were feeling good during the descent.
The Soyuz capsule undocked from the ISS at 2345 GMT on Monday with the departing astronauts leaving on board the station Koichi Wakata of Japan, the new ISS commander; American Rick Mastracchio; and Russian Mikhail Tyurin.
