Soyuz spacecraft lands safely in Kazakhstan

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) – A Soyuz space capsule carrying a 3-man multinational crew has touched down on the southern steppes of Kazakhstan, bringing an end to their 193-day mission to the International Space Station.

Around a dozen recovery helicopters zeroed into the vast uncultivated land mass Sunday afternoon, where NASA astronaut Donald Pettit, Russia's Oleg Kononenko and Dutchman Andre Kuipers landed in their Russian-made capsule.

The voyage from the space station started 3 1 / 2hours earlier, when it undocked and began a slow, gentle drift away. It made a perfect landing in the still and summery weather at 2:14 pm local time (08:17 GMT), right on schedule.

Russians Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin and U.S. astronaut Joseph Acaba are expected to remain onboard the space station for a further three months.

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