A Soyuz spacecraft carrying two US astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut back to earth from the International Space Station landed safely in Kazakhstan today.
The spacecraft, containing Russian commander Fyodor Yurichikhin and Nasa's Douglas Wheelock and Shannon Walker touched down as planned this morning north of the remote central Kazakh town of Arkalyk, Russia's space agency Roskosmos said.
"We have a landing!" flashed the flight monitoring screens at mission control just outside Moscow.
Roskosmos said in a statement the three crew members were in good health.
Images of the crew on state television showed Yurichikhin bundled against gusty winds in full-body blue thermal blanket. He shut his eyes as doctors checked his pulse and wiped his brow after the Soyuz's fiery descent through the atmosphere ended his five and half months in space.
ISS Mission commander and US army Colonel Wheelock held up a "Hi Mom!" home-made cardboard greeting for cameras. Grinning widely, he said the descent back to Earth was "everything and more" than he expected.
Two-time flier US astronaut Scott Kelly, Russia space veteran Alexander Kaleri and rookie flight engineer Oleg Skripochka remain aboard the orbiting outpost - a $100 billion project shared by 16 nations.
Today's textbook landing is sure to calm worries about dependence on the Russian Soyuz flights after unprecedented troubles undocking during the craft's last re-entry in October forced the three-member crew to remain an extra day in orbit scrambling to free jammed latches.
The mishap in a space programme that depends on pinpoint accuracy came as Nasais due to mothball its Discovery shuttle programme later this year.
With the shuttles' retirement, Nasa has turned over station crew ferry flights to Russia, at a cost of $51 million per person.
The shuttle program is ending after 30 years of flights due to high operating costs of about $3 billion a year. The United States does not have a replacement vehicle.
Reuters