New photo Three astronauts return from International Space Station

Three astronauts returned to Earth Thursday after spending more than six months on the International Space Station.

A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts inside landed in the snow in Kazakhstan, about 140 km (87 miles) southeast of the city of Dzhezkazgan. 

NASA's Serena Aunon-Chancellor, Russian Sergey Prokopyev and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency left the ISS on Wednesday afternoon.

Russian rescue teams in helicopters and all-terrain vehicles rushed to the landing site to extract the astronauts from the descent capsule.  

The return comes after a dramatic 197 days in space for the trio after an initial rocket failure forcing them to make an emergency landing and investigating the discovery of a mysterious hole that appeared in the Soyuz capsule. 

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Ground personnel help International Space Station (ISS) crew member Alexander Gerst, pictured smiling as he leaves the capsule, of Germany to get out of the Soyuz MS-09 capsule after landing in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan

After landing the team inside the capsule, which was charred from the fiery ride through the atmosphere, radioed the crew to say they were feeling fine. 

Rescue crews helped the crew in their space suits leave the capsule and conducted an initial medical examination. 

The trio has spent 197 days in space and had been round the earth 3,152 times, travelling a total of 134 million km (83.3 million miles)

A Russian Soyuz capsule carrying three astronauts inside landed in the snow in Kazakhstan, about 140 km (87 miles) southeast of the city of Dzhezkazgan. The descent capsule with the parachute attached was charred from the fiery ride through the atmosphere

Ground personnel help International Space Station (ISS) crew member Sergey Prokopyev of Russia to get out of the Soyuz MS-09 capsule after landing safely in Kazakhstan

It was the first mission for Aunon-Chancellor and Prokopyev, while Gerst returned to Earth for a second time. 

Gerst spent 362 days in orbit aboard the ISS, setting the European Space Station's flight duration record. 

He had been part of ISS expeditions 40 and 41 from May to November 2014, and went back up to the space station in June. 

The astronauts will be taken to Dzhezkazgan for a brief welcome ceremony before being flown to their respective countries for more thorough check-ups. 

Rescue crews helped the crew in their space suits leave the capsule and conducted an initial medical examination. Pictured, Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergei Prokopyev has an eye examination

The three astronauts will be taken to Dzhezkazgan for a brief welcome ceremony before being flown to their respective countries for more thorough check-ups.

Space station residents held a change-of-command ceremony with Gerst handing over to Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos on Wednesday afternoon. 

Their return comes after a turbulent time for astronauts at the ISS after a small hole was discovered in the hull of the Soyuz spaceship.

The craft docked at the ISS two months before the air leak, which caused a slight drop ion pressure, was detected in August. 

The trio has spent 197 days in space and had been round the earth 3,152 times, travelling a total of 134 million km (83.3 million miles). Pictured, German astronaut Gerst and NASA's Serena Aunon-Chancellor

NASA astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor seen as the Soyuz MS-09 descent capsule. NASA's Serena Aunon-Chancellor, Russian Sergey Prokopyev and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency left the ISS on Wednesday afternoon

Russian cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev and Oleg Kononenko were forced to use an armoury of tools to uncover the source in a gruelling seven hour spacewalk.

Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, said the aim was to discover whether the 'small but dangerous' hole was deliberately caused in an act of 'sabotage' or if it had been made in space. 

German astronaut Alexander Gerst spent 362 days in orbit aboard the ISS, setting the European Space Station's flight duration record

A rare live-stream broadcast showed the cosmonauts in space trying to cut through an insulate of the spacecraft with a knife.

They then uncovered the external part of the hole, originally discovered in the capsule's internal covering, and took samples of the exterior insulation. 

The initial launch of the Russian Soyuz rocket capsule was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after launching in October because of a faulty sensor.

The rocket had been transporting two personnel, one Russian and one American, to the International Space Station when they had to abort. 

A search and rescue helicopter are seen before a flight to the landing area of the Soyuz MS-09 capsule with the International Space Station (ISS) crew onboard during sunrise in the town of Zhezkazgan, formerly known as Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan

However, none of the astronauts who landed yesterday were on board at the time of the launch

The crew members who were recovered safely from an escape capsule. 

NASA astronaut Anne McClain, Russian Oleg Kononenko and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency, who arrived at the station earlier this month, are set to remain in orbit until June. 

Search and rescue helicopters are seen before a flight to the landing area of the Soyuz MS-09 capsule with the International Space Station (ISS) crew onboard during sunrise in the town of Zhezkazgan

RUSSIA'S SOYUZ: DECADES OF BLASTING INTO SPACE

The Soyuz programme is an ongoing human spaceflight programme which was initiated by the Soviet Union in the early 1960s, originally part of a Moon landing project.

There have been 138 manned missions, of which 11 have failed and one astronaut has died.

Here are some of the notable failures, including one in 1967 when an astronaut was killed, one in 1975 when two astronauts hurtle to Earth.

1967: Soviet astronaut Vladimir Komarov was killed during landing due to a parachute failure

1975: Two Russian astronauts had to abort a mission to a Russian space station at an altitude of 90miles due to a rocket failure.

They hurtled towards Earth and safely landed in the Altai Mountains on the Russia-China border. 

One of the astronauts never flew to space again, never fully recovered from the accident and died aged 62 in 1990. The other made two more flights. 

1983: A rocket malfunctioned during the countdown to take off in southern Kazakhstan.

Automatic systems ejected the two Russian crew-members just seconds before the rocket exploded. The fire burned on the launch pad for 20 hours. 

2002: A Soyuz ship carrying a satellite crashed during launch in Russia when a booster suffered an engine malfunction. The ship landed near the launch pad, killing one engineer on the ground.

2011: A Soyuz-U mission carrying cargo failed to launch to the International Space Station when the upper stage experienced a problem and broke up over Siberia.

2016: Another cargo ship was lost shortly after launch, likely due to a problem with the third stage of the Soyuz-U. 

August 2018: A hole in a Soyuz capsule docked to the International Space Station caused a brief loss of air pressure and had to be patched. 

The Russians claimed the hole was drilled deliberately in an act of sabotage either on Earth or in orbit. Another theory is that the hole was a production defect.

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News Pictures Three astronauts return from International Space Station

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