Discovery brings space station pioneers back

Space shuttle Discovery has brought the first crew of the international space station back to Earth.

It touched down at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida after bad weather had delayed the landing.

The one American and two Russians had spent four-and-a-half months working on the space station.

Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev have handed over their duties to a fresh three-person crew that was dropped off by Discovery.

The station was a barren outpost when the three men arrived at the beginning of November and is now a sophisticated, sprawling complex.