Russian recovery crews and NASA personnel rushed to the spacecraft, opened the top hatch and helped carry the returning crew members to nearby recliners where flight surgeons carried out initial health checks. Ovchinin and Vagner appeared to be in good spirits, smiling, chatting with support crews and enjoying drinks and snacks. Pettit, however, looked disoriented as he was carried from the descent module, letting his head fall back and closing his eyes as he was moved to his recliner. He was not seen again on the landing site video. But there were no indications of any sort of major problem, medical or otherwise. From Kazakhstan, Ovchinin and Vagner will head back to Star City near Moscow, while Pettit will be flown to Houston and the Johnson Space Center for more detailed tests and the start of physical re-habilitation.

A Soyuz capsule carrying two Russians and one American from the International Space Station landed Sunday in Kazakhstan, ending their seven-month research assignment. According to Russian space agency Roscosmos, the capsule carrying Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner and astronaut Don Pettit of U.S. space agency NASA landed on the Kazakh steppe near the city of Zhezkazgan at 6:20 a.m. (0120 GMT). Roscosmos said the parachute-assisted landing was a trouble-free descent. The trio returned after spending 220 days in space and orbiting the Earth 3,520 times, NASA said in a statement. The agency noted that, coincidentally, Pettit celebrated his 70th birthday on Sunday.

The three-man crew made the trip home after spending 220 days in space and orbiting the Earth 3,520 times, NASA said in a statement. Pettit had been researching in-orbit metal 3D printing capabilities, water sanitisation tech and plant growth in space, NASA said. NASA said it was following its routine post-landing medical checks, and that the crew would return to the recovery staging area in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. Pettit will then board a NASA plane bound for the agency's Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, while Roscosmos said Ovchinin and Vagner will depart for a training base in Star City, Russia. On Friday, Mr Ovchinin handed over command of the ISS to Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi in a change of command ceremony.