BEIJING, Dec. 1 — Three astronauts landed safely on the Kazakhstan steppes Tuesday after spending six months on the International Space Station.

The Russian Soyuz TMA-15 capsule landed as planned at 10:17 a.m. Moscow time (07:17 GMT) about 85 km north of the town of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan.

The capsule carrying Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, and European Space Agency’s astronaut Frank De Winne of Belgium, touched down without a hitch, said Russian Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin.

“The landing was very soft; we were lucky not to have any wind,” Romanenko said in televised remarks after leaving the capsule. “Everything went quite nicely; there were no problems whatsoever.”

The crew will fly back to Russia’s space training center in Star City, outside Moscow, on Tuesday for a reunion with their families and for training on how to deal with gravity after six months on the space station, according to NASA.

Two astronauts, NASA’s Jeff Williams and Russia’s Maxim Suraev, will remain on the space station until the arrival of Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, NASA’s Timothy J. Creamer, and Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on Dec. 21. 

On Xinhua Web site: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/01/content_12571381.htm