Space station crew return to Earth

A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying three astronauts from the International Space Station landed safely in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

The capsule -- carrying Belgian Frank de Winne, Canadian Robert Thirsk and Russian Roman Romanenko -- landed as planned in the vast steppe of northern Kazakhstan about 85 km (50 miles) north of the town of Arkalyk.

"The Soyuz commander has just reported that the crew is in good shape," said an official at Mission Control in Korolyov outside Moscow. The capsule landed at 10:17 a.m. Moscow time (0717 GMT/2:17 a.m. EST), according to officials at Mission Control.

A two-man crew remains orbiting the Earth on the space station. They will be joined by another three-man crew from Russia, the United States and Japan that is due to launch to the station onboard a Soyuz spacecraft on December 21.