Space station crew lands safely

HOUSTON, April 8 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency says two members of the International Space Station's Expedition18th crew and a space flight participant have returned safely to Earth.

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft landed in southern Kazakhstan at 3:16 a.m. EDT Wednesday with National Aeronautics and Space Administration astronaut Mike Fincke, Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov and spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi aboard.

Fincke commanded the Expedition 18 mission, spending 178 days in orbit and accumulating a full year in space during his career. Launching to the station Oct. 12, he also became the first American to fly to and from the space station twice aboard a Soyuz. Fincke served nearly 188 days on the Expedition 9 crew in 2004.

Lonchakov spent nearly 12 days aboard the space shuttle Endeavour in 2001. He spent nearly 11 days in space in 2002, launching aboard one Soyuz craft and landing in another while carrying different crews to the space station and back. He has accumulated more than 200 days in space.

Simonyi, an American, spent 11 days at the ISS under a commercial agreement with the Russian Federal Space Agency. He is the only space tourist to visit the station twice.