ISS astronauts land in Kazakhstan

MOSCOW, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying three astronauts safely landed in Kazakhstan after leaving the International Space Station a day late, officials said.

NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Korniyenko spent six months aboard the ISS, RIA Novosti reported Saturday.

Their return was delayed 24 hours due to a false alarm signal sent by an airlock sensor. Caldwell Dyson was involved in three spacewalks to replace a faulty cooling pump on the space station, NASA said.

The spacecraft landed Saturday near the town of Arkalyk, leaving NASA astronauts Douglas Wheelock and Shannon Walker and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin aboard the space station.

A Russian Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft with cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka, and NASA astronaut Scott J. Kelly will return to the ISS following an Oct. 8 launch from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, the report said.