Flight engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy, of the Russian Federal Space Agency, is helped from the Russian Soyuz TMA-10M capsule after landing. Photo: AP
An American astronaut and two Russians who carried a Sochi Olympic torch into open space landed safely and on time on Tuesday in Kazakhstan, defying bad weather and ending their 166-day mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Here, engineers document cargo as it is unloaded from the Soyuz TMA-10M capsule that carried the three after it landed in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on Tuesday, March 11, 2014. The astronauts returned to Earth after spending nearly six months on the International Space Station.
Flight engineer Mike Hopkins, of NASA, gives a thumbs up as he is helped from the Russian Soyuz TMA-10M capsule after landing.
Commander Oleg Kotov, of the Russian Federal Space Agency, gives a thumbs up shortly after the capsule carrying him and the two others landed.