Two astronauts and a cosmonaut are safely back on Earth after spending close to five months living and working in space.
The three International Space Station crewmembers -- NASA's Kjell Lindgren, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui -- landed in Kazakhstan shortly after 8 a.m. ET, sheltered snuggly within their Russian-built Soyuz capsule.
The Soyuz undocked from the space laboratory at about 4:49 a.m. ET on Friday.
Примерно такую картину сейчас наблюдает экипаж #СоюзТМА17М во время входа в плотные слои атмосферы pic.twitter.com/NVDDfqAPac— РОСКОСМОС (@fka_roscosmos) December 11, 2015
Fair winds and following seas my friends! Safe landing @astro_kjell, @Astro_Kimiya, & Oleg! #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/v6IXStkI7f— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) December 11, 2015
The landing conditions were rough when they were landing, as it was snowy and just after sunset local time. The capsule landed on its side, which is common in windy conditions, and four helicopters with medical crews met them at the site.
The remnants of #Soyuz's fiery plunge through the atmosphere. Congratulations on a successful landing #SoyuzTMA17M! pic.twitter.com/4Pr2uJJ8HT— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) December 11, 2015
NASA's Scott Kelly, Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov will hold down the fort onboard the Space Station until a new crew of three launches to the outpost on Dec. 15.
Kelly and Kornienko are taking part in the first yearlong mission on the Space Station, scheduled to return to Earth in March 2016.
Lindgren, Yui and Kononenko performed a variety of health and space science investigations while on the station, including an experiment to eat lettuce grown on the station. Lindgren also helped set up another plant growth experiment that could produce the first flowers ever grown on the outpost in early 2016.
Lindgren and Yui were also prolific social media users during their time in space.
A heartfelt thanks to everyone who made #Exp45 possible. Merry Christmas! pic.twitter.com/uRBTibzK6P— Kjell Lindgren (@astro_kjell) December 10, 2015
Istanbul) イスタンブール。この街も、是非一度は訪れてみたい街の一つです。コンスタンチノープルが陥落し、東ローマ帝国が滅んだ後、モスクワ大公国のイヴァン３世は最後の皇帝の姪を妻に迎え。。。といったあたりの歴史が興味深いです。 pic.twitter.com/hJ6AEclC4t— 油井 亀美也 Kimiya.Yui (@Astro_Kimiya) December 7, 2015
Lush green blanket over the western part of Kauai #Hawaii. The #StoryOfWater. pic.twitter.com/sHQXyVGTyQ— Kjell Lindgren (@astro_kjell) December 9, 2015
At the moment, NASA relies on Russia's Soyuz rockets and capsules to bring its astronauts to and from the Space Station, but the space agency plans to change that in the near future.
NASA hopes to start sending space explorers to the orbiting outpost via spacecraft built by two private companies -- Boeing and SpaceX -- by 2017.