Astronauts land safely in Kazakhstan

DZHEZKAZGAN, Kazakhstan, March 12 (UPI) -- Having traveled more than 71 million miles orbiting Earth during their sixth-month stay aboard the International Space Station, one astronaut and two cosmonauts are now back on solid ground.

The three were returned safely by the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft, which executed a more than four-minute burn before free-falling through Earth's atmosphere, the final portion of its descent slowed by a massive parachute.

NASA Commander Barry Wilmore, and flight engineers Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova of the Russian Federal Space Agency landed softly in Kazakhstan at 10:07 p.m. EDT on Wednesday evening -- Thursday morning, local time.

This was the second completed trip to the space station and back for Wilmore and Samokutyaev. The NASA commander has now logged 178 days aboard ISS. It was the first mission for Serova.

"During their time on station, the crew members participated in a variety of research focusing on the effects of microgravity on cells, Earth observation, physical science and biological and molecular science," NASA reported.

The now-Earthbound Expedition 42 members left behind Expedition 43 Commander Terry Virts of NASA, as well as flight engineers Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agengy and Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency.

They will be joined later this month by NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka. Kelly and Kornienko will spend a year aboard the space station in order to study the physiological effects of being in space for long periods of time -- long enough for deep space missions.