Russian, North American astronauts return to Earth after 204 days in space, NASA shares first visuals

A Soyuz spacecraft carrying astronauts from Canada, Russia and the United States has undocked from the International Space Station and has returned back to Earth on Monday.

The Soyuz separated without incident from the orbiting laboratory at 2325 GMT (7:25 p.m. EDT) Monday. It landed in the steppes of Kazakhstan. The capsule was carrying two astronauts who completed their first flights: Anne McClain of the United States and David Saint-Jacques of Canada.

Taking to Twitter, NASA posted visuals of the landing of the two astronauts.  

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In another tweet, NASA shared visuals of Anne McClain of the United States as she marked the end of her first spaceflight. 

Later, NASA administrator also shared visuals, welcoming both the astronauts safely back to India: 

Also aboard were expedition commander Oleg Kononenko, who successfully ended his fourth space mission. All three spent 204 days in space.

Americans Nick Hague and Christina Koch and Russia's Alexey Ovchinin remain aboard the space station. 

The trio's launch on December 3 was the first after a Soyuz rocket carrying Russia's Aleksey Ovchinin and US astronaut Nick Hague failed in October just minutes after blast-off, forcing the pair to make an emergency landing.

They escaped unharmed but the failed launch was the first such incident in Russia's post-Soviet history and a new setback for the country's once-proud space industry. 

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(With agency inputs)