Astronauts in Russian capsule land safely with World Cup football after 168-day mission to ISS

Ashley May | USA TODAY

Three astronauts from the United States, Russia and Japan safely landed in Kazakhstan following a 168-day mission to the International Space Station.

A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying NASA astronaut Scott Tingle, Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Anton Shkaplerov of Russia's Roscosmos space program, parachuted into the remote town of Dzhezkazgan at at 6:39 p.m. local time (8:39 a.m. EDT) Sunday. All three men were safely removed from the capsule within 30 minutes.

More: Small asteroid, first spotted hours earlier, disintegrates over Africa

More: Russian cosmonauts take World Cup into space

Shkaplerov, the first to be carried out of the capsule, told reporters "we are a bit tired but happy with what we have accomplished and happy to be back on Earth. We are glad the weather is sunny," the BBC reported.

After medical examinations, Shkaplerov was heading to Moscow, carrying a football that may be used in the 2018 World Cup that begins in Russia on June 14, according to Agence France-Presse. Tingle and Kanai were heading to Houston, Texas, the BBC reported.

The men completed hundreds of experiments during their time in space, including a study of the effect of microgravity on the bone marrow and research into plant growth in space. They also completed space walks. Shkaplerov completed a record-setting space walk timed at 8 hours and 13 minutes, the longest in Russian space program history, in February.

It was Tingle and Kanai's first mission.

Tingle, who was raised in Randolph, Mass., tweeted: "Feels good to be back on Earth!"

Expedition 55 undocking and landing earlier today. Feels good to be back on Earth! Thank you for making this a fantastic adventure! Congrats to Expedition 56! Time to get busy – chop chop hubba bubba! — Scott D. Tingle (@Astro_Maker) June 3, 2018

Follow Ashley May on Twitter: @AshleyMayTweets