A Soyuz-TMA-16 space capsule carrying two astronauts returning from the International Space Station (ISS) successfully landed in Kazakhstan on Thursday, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported.
The spacecraft, carrying Maxim Surayev of Russia and Jeff Williams of the United States, undocked from the ISS on schedule and landed at 14:25 Moscow time [11:25 GMT], two minutes later than the expected landing time.
The rescue team has already evacuated the astronauts from the capsule.
"The crew did well during the landing, they are in high spirits and weather conditions at the landing zone are good," a source in the rescue team reported to the Mission Control Center in Korolev, near Moscow.
The astronauts will be flown by helicopter to the Baikonur space center, and will arrive at the Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow on Thursday evening.
Surayev and Williams spent six months in orbit on board the ISS.
Work at the ISS will be continued by Russian astronaut Oleg Kotov, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi and the U.S.'s Timothy Creamer, until they are joined by Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko, and U.S. astronaut Tracy Caldwell, who are scheduled to depart for the ISS on a Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft on April 2.
MISSION CONTROL CENTER, March 18 (RIA Novosti)
