Space station crew returns to Earth

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BAIKONUR COSMODROME, Kazakhstan, April 27 (UPI) -- Three crew members from the International Space Station safely returned to Earth Friday, wrapping up a 5 1/2-month mission in space, NASA said.

The Expedition 30 crew consisting of commander Dan Burbank of NASA and Russian flight engineers Anatoly Ivanishin and Anton Shkaplerov landed their Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft in Kazakhstan at 7:45 a.m. EDT Friday, the space agency reported.

The crew had undocked from the ISS at 4:18 a.m.

Burbank, Ivanishin and Shkaplerov were extracted from their Soyuz capsule and they are now being monitored by flight surgeons, NASA said.

The three arrived at the station Nov. 16, 2011, and spent 165 days in space.

The Expedition 31 crew of commander Oleg Kononenko and flight engineers Don Pettit and Andre Kuipers will remain on the ISS until July 1, and will be joined by another three-man crew in mid-May.

The new crew mates, Flight Engineers Gennady Padalka, Joe Acaba and Sergei Revin are completing their mission training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia and will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan May 15.