A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying three astronauts who had spent around half a year aboard the International Space Station, landed Wednesday in the steppes of Kazakhstan.
The landing occurred on schedule with the capsule descending under a white parachute. It had undocked from the orbiting laboratory some 260 miles (418 kilometers) above the Earth about three hours earlier.
Russian Mikhail Tyurin, American Rick Mastracchio and Koichi Wakata of Japan had spent 188 days in space.
