Three astronauts from the US, Japan and Russia have returned to Earth after a 115-day mission on board the International Space Station.

A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying NASA's Kate Rubins, Japan's Takuya Onisihi and Russian Anatoly Ivanishin landed in a remote region near Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan on Sunday morning.

Their journey home from space took around three-and-a-half hours from undocking until landing.

The craft landed upright allowing the astronauts to be removed from the capsule fairly swiftly.

Image: US astronaut Kate Rubins is helped out of the craft

They sat on the treeless Central Asian steppes as they readjusted to the forces of gravity after nearly four months in weightless conditions.


They were then taken to a nearby medical tent for initial examination.

Molecular biologist Rubins and Onishi were both returning from their first missions in space, while flight commander Ivanishin undertook a five-month mission at the ISS five years ago.

"Everybody is feeling wonderful," said Ivanishin, who emerged first from the craft.

Their journey back to Earth marks the first complete mission to and from the orbital lab for a new generation of Soyuz spacecraft with upgraded features.

Image: Specialists stand around the Soyuz space capsule after it lands in Kazakhstan

Andrei Borisenko and Sergey Ryzhykov of Russia and NASA astronaut Robert Shane Kimbrough remain on board the space station.

They arrived there on 22 October following a two-day voyage.

Technical mishaps have complicated plans to extend the periods during which the ISS is fully staffed with six astronauts.

The space laboratory has been orbiting Earth at about 28,000kmph (17,000 miles per hour) since 1998.

Space travel is one of the few areas of international cooperation between Russia and the West.