Three-man capsule returns from space station

A Russian space capsule carrying an Italian, a Russian and an American hurtled safely home to Earth from the International Space Station today, landing softly on the marshy Central Asian steppes in the early-morning darkness.

Search-and-rescue helicopters spotted the capsule floating under a parachute toward its designated arrival site about 56 miles north of the Kazakh town of Arkalyk. The TMA-5 capsule then landed upright in the slush less than three-and-a-half hours after undocking from the orbiting space station, where a new crew stayed behind to prepare to welcome the first space shuttle flight after a two-year hiatus.