Russia safely returns three cosmonauts from International Space Station

Three Russian cosmonauts returned safely on September 29 from a mission to the International Space Station.

The Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft carrying Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev and Sergey Korsakov touched down softly at 4:57 p.m. at a designated site in the steppes of Kazakhstan about 90 miles southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan, Fox News reports.

The trio arrived at the station in March. For Artemyev, the mission marked a third space flight that brought his total time spent in orbit to 561 days. Matveyev and Korsakov each logged 195 days on their first missions.

As the Soyuz capsule descended on a big striped red-and-white parachute under clear skies, Artemyev reported to Mission Control that all crew members were feeling fine.

Helicopters' support teams landed minutes after to recover the crew. After a quick post-flight medical exam, the cosmonauts will be flown to the Star City cosmonaut training centre outside Moscow later in the day.

The station is currently operated by Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency, NASA astronauts Bob Hines, Kjell Lindgren, Frank Rubio, and Jessica Watkins, and the Russian space agency Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin.