Astronauts return to accolades and apples

Russian Soyuz spacecraft touched down safely Wednesday on the steppe of Kazakhstan after a five-and-a-half month stay in space.  Television pictures showed the capsule carrying the astronauts being guided down by a parachute and producing a plume of dust as it touched down under clear blue skies.

Reuters

During their stint at the International Space Station the three men, the Russian Oleg Kotov, Soichi Noguchi of Japan and US astronaut Timothy Creamer were in charge of putting the finishing touches on the US Laboratory research facilities among other duties, said NASA.

On landing, the trio were given apples as a traditional goodwill gesture. "A very good landing.  Everyone feels excellent," the chief of Russia's space agency Anatoly Perminov told reporters.

"Recently, all the touchdowns have been not just successful but with a high-precision landing and most importantly, excellent health," he continued.

"You see they are already eating apples," he added, referring to television pictures showing Noguchi happily chewing an apple.