Soyuz capsule lands in Kazakhstan

Soyuz capsule lands in Kazakhstan ending astronauts' four-month space stint

Russia's Yuri Malenchenko, Sunita Williams of the US and Akihiko Hoshide of Japan touched down as scheduled just before 0200 GMT, the Russian Space Flight Control Centre announced.

The three landed an hour before sunrise a few miles from the target northeast of Arkalyk in central Kazakhstan, a Central Asian ex-Soviet republic, an official said on Nasa TV which showed the landing.

^{Russia's Soyuz space capsule parachuted down onto the snowy Kazakh steppe just before dawn local time (Photo: EPA)}

The astronauts and cosmonaut had to be carried out of the capsule one by one as their bodies need to readjust from spending 125 days in space.

They were placed side by side on special seats and covered with a blanket to protect them from the cold before being taken inside tents for medical examination.

^{Expedition 33 Commander Sunita Williams of Nasa (R), and Flight Engineers Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) and Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) (L) sit in chairs outside the Soyuz Capsule just minutes after landing in Kazakhstan}