(7 Sep 2016) Three crew members of the International Space Station returned to Earth in time for a sparkling sunrise on Wednesday.
A record-setting American astronaut and his two Russian colleagues landed in the southeast of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, after six-months in orbit.
NASA's Jeff Williams returned as the US record holder for time in orbit, logging 534 days in space over four missions.
The world record is held by Russian Gennady Padalka at 879 days in space.
Williams, Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka logged 72.8 million miles in space, circling the globe 2,752 times before landing on target in the south central steppes of Kazakhstan just 23 minutes after sunrise Wednesday, 7:13 a.m. local time (1:13 a.m. GMT).
They were promptly pulled out of the Russian Soyuz capsule.
Stretched out in chairs placed in the brown wild grass, the three flyers were all smiles, giving thumbs up, chatting on phones.
Williams wore a black baseball cap while seated outside and talking on the phone.
Ovchinin clutched a stuffed doll his daughter gave him as a mascot that went into space with him.
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