A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying three crew members from the International Space Station (ISS) landed safely in Kazakhstan on Saturday after the completion of their mission.
The touch down took place on the grassland near the south-eastern city of Jezkazgan, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.
On board the Soyuz MS-24 capsule were Loral O'Hara of the United States, Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus and Oleg Novitsky of Russia. All three immediately underwent a standard medical examination.
O'Hara had been on the ISS since September 2023. Vasilevskaya and Novitsky, on the other hand, only arrived 12 days ago for a short stay on the outpost orbiting 400 kilometres above Earth.
Vasilevskaya, who works as a flight instructor and flight attendant for Belavia airlines, is the first woman from her country to fly into space.
She and Novitsky, for whom it was his fourth ISS mission, were originally due to fly to the space station two days earlier. But the launch was cancelled at the last minute due to technical problems. No problems were reported on the return journey.