Russian Mission Control says a Soyuz capsule carrying three men who had been aboard the International Space Station has landed safely on the steppes of Kazakhstan.
A spokesman for Mission Control in Moscow said communications had been established with the crew, and that all three crew members were safe.
U.S. astronaut Mike Fossum, Satoshi Furukawa of the Japanese space agency, and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov landed north of the town of Arkalyk.
The trio had spent more than five months working on board the International Space Station.
Another trio — American Dan Burbank and Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin — arrived at the space station aboard a Soyuz on November 16 and are scheduled to stay until March.
compiled from agency reports