Space Station Crew Lands In Kazakhstan

This story was updated at 2:41 a.m. EST.

A Canadian, a Russian and a Belgian astronaut left the International Space Station and landed on the icy steppes of Kazakhstan Tuesday aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Belgian astronaut Frank DeWinne, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk touched down in their Soyuz TMA-15 crew capsule at 2:15 a.m. EST (0715 GMT) after heavy parachutes slowed the craft's descent.

The landing went smoothly, though the subzero temperatures in Kazakhstan prevented helicopters from flying to retrieve the crew as usual. Instead, the Russian Federal Space Agency sent teams in all-terrain vehicles to recover the spaceflyers.

The three crewmembers are finishing a six-month tour of duty on the orbiting laboratory. When their spacecraft left the outpost their Expedition 21 mission officially ended and the new Expedition 22 began.

DeWinne served as the first station commander representing the European Space Agency.

"As the first European commander, it has been a great honor to be able to fulfill this role, and I could have only done this thanks to the help of my colleagues," DeWinne said during a change-of-command ceremony Nov. 24, when he handed over control of the station to NASA astronaut Jeff Williams.

The station is now down to a barebones crew of two ? Williams and Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev ? for a period of about three weeks.

The departing crewmembers said they were eager to be back on the ground.

"I miss my family most of all, of course," Thirsk said during an in-flight news conference last week. "I am already dreaming of those first hugs when I see my family in Moscow. After that is nature. I miss the wind; I miss the sunlight, the smell of flowers, and freshly cut grass."

The spaceflyers said they became close during the long months living and working together in close quarters.

"I really appreciate my friends," Romanenko said of his crewmates. "We had a very good time together, we had a very good experience during our six-month flight."

Romanenko is the son of veteran cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko, who commanded three space missions in the 1970s and 1980s.

During their 186 days on the station, DeWinne, Romanenko and Thirsk saw the addition of a new science porch on the station's Japanese Kibo laboratory, the arrival of the first Japanese unmanned cargo ship, called HTV, and the addition of the new Russian Poisk module to the station.

During their tenure three space shuttle flights visited the station to deliver new parts and equipment, and at one point a record three Soyuz spacecraft were simultaneously docked at the outpost.

Thirsk said a highlight was the HTV mission to deliver food, computers and other supplies. The flight represented the first flight of the untried vehicle.

"The most exciting moment was the arrival of the HTV Japanese cargo vehicle," Thirsk said. "That went off perfectly."

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