Expedition 17 crew returns from space

HOUSTON, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- NASA said space traveler Richard Garriott and two members of the Expedition 17th crew have returned safely from the International Space Station.

Garriott and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononeko landed their Soyuz spacecraft in Kazakhstan Thursday after 199 days in orbit. Garriott, son of former NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, spent 10 days on the station under a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency, NASA said in a release.

The new space station crew consists of Expedition 18's U.S.commander E. Michael Fincke and flight engineers Greg Chamitoff of the United States and Yury Lonchakov of Russia.