Touchdown! US-Russian Space Station Crew Returns to Earth

By Mike Wall, Senior Writer   |   September 10, 2014 10:30pm ET

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A Soyuz capsule carrying NASA astronaut Steve Swanson and cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev touches down safely on the steppes of Kazakhstan on Sept. 10, 2014.

A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts landed back on Earth late Wednesday (Sept. 10), ending their 5 1/2-month mission to the International Space Station.
A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying American Steve Swanson, commander of the orbiting lab's Expedition 40, and cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev touched down safely on the steppes of Kazakhstan at 10:23 p.m. EDT Wednesday (0223 GMT Thursday; 0823 Thursday local Kazakhstan time).
The Soyuz had departed the space station at 7:01 p.m. EDT, meaning the trio's ride down to Earth lasted less than 3 1/2 hours — roughly the same amount of time it takes to fly from San Francisco to Houston