Three astronauts have safely returned to Earth after spending more than six months aboard the International Space Station.
The Soyuz capsule with astronauts from Canada, Russia and the United States landed safely in Kazakhstan after a three-and-a-half-hour flight from the orbiting laboratory.
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Two of the astronauts had completed their maiden flights - Anne McClain of the United States and David Saint-Jacques of Canada.
The expedition commander Oleg Kononenko of Russia has ended his fourth space mission.
Americans Nick Hague and Christina Koch and Russia’s Alexey Ovchinin remain aboard the space station.
Space veteran Mr Kononenko, who was the first one to be extracted from the capsule, looked visibly tired and pale.
Ms McClain and Mr Saint-Jacques were more energetic and gave a thumbs-up to the recovery team who greeted the three with applause.
The astronauts were put on camping chairs in the sun alongside the capsule for some respite and initial medical checks.
Welcome home @AstroAnnimal! 🙌👊 See you back in Houston on Tuesday night! https://t.co/yuOTrZ4Jut pic.twitter.com/fBm6HRSKns
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) June 25, 2019
When asked by a reporter on site if he liked the weather, Mr Kononenko said he was “happy to see any kind of weather” after spending over 200 days in space.
The crew is expected to be taken to a local airport before flying to their home bases.
Over the past six months, the crew members helped conduct hundreds of science experiments and oversaw the arrival and departure of several robotic resupply ships.
They were also in place to receive the first US commercial spacecraft on a demonstration mission to the space station.
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