NASA says 3 International Space Station astronauts have returned safely to Earth

Three space station fliers floated into their Soyuz ferry craft, sealed the hatch and undocked from the lab complex Friday, setting the stage for a fiery plunge to touchdown in snowy Kazakhstan to close out a almost five-month stay in orbit. Due to the weather though, the number of recovery helicopters were limited from 12 to four and the post-landing medical exams were deferred, in favor of promptly flying the crew to the nearest airport.

NASA’s Scott Kelly, Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov will hold down the fort onboard the Space Station until a new crew of three launches to the outpost on December 15.

The three Expedition 45 crew members launched from Kazakhstan in July and spent 141 days in space.

University of Leicester space scientist Professor Martin Barstow will have a front row seat when British astronaut Tim Peake makes history by becoming the first Briton to visit the International Space Station.

The orbiting global laboratory – that has been a research ground for many innovating tests and some key science experiments on astronauts in a zero-gravity atmosphere that have repercussions for the Earth – is reported to become inoperative in either 2024 – or if given another extension – till 2028 at the latest. They will return to the Earth in March 2016. The station has taken a power hit, and spacewalking repairs may be needed.

Lindgren and Yui were also prolific social media users during their time in space.

On this flight, Kononenko, Lindgren and Yui traveled 59.6 million miles (95.9 million kilometers) during 2,256 orbits.

Astronauts flight engineers Kjell Lindgren of NASA, Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos, and Kimiya Yui of JAXA landed safely in the former Soviet state early this morning after spending 141 days in space.

“It is an uncanny feeling to think I will be on Earth in 24 hours”.