Three astronauts were aboard the International Space Station for more than six months and returned to Earth on Thursday, spending a total of 197 days in space.
A Russian Soyuz capsule with NASA's Serena Aunon-Chancellor, Russian Sergey Prokopyev and German astronaut Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency landed on the snow-covered steppes in Kazakhstan, about 140 kilometres southeast of the city of Dzhezkazgan. They touched down a minute ahead of schedule at 11:02 a.m. local time (0502 GMT; 12:02 a.m. EST).
The crew radioed that they were feeling fine. Russian rescue teams in helicopters and all-terrain vehicles rushed to the landing site to pull out the astronauts from the capsule charred by a fiery ride through the atmosphere.
While this was Aunon-Chancellor and Prokopyev바카라™s first mission, it was Gerst바카라™s second, completing a total of 362 days in space, setting the ESA바카라™s flight duration record.
The rescue crews helped the crew in their bulky spacesuits leave the capsule and conducted an initial medical examination. The astronauts will be taken to Dzhezkazgan for a brief welcome ceremony before being flown to their respective countries for more thorough check-ups.
NASA astronaut Anne McClain, Russian Oleg Kononenko and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency, who have arrived at the station earlier this month, are set to remain in orbit until June.
(AP)Â
