Soyuz capsule returns to Earth from International Space Station

The Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft lands in a remote area near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan (Bill Ingalls/Nasa/AP)

A Soyuz capsule carrying two Russians and one American from the International Space Station landed on Sunday in Kazakhstan, ending their seven-month research assignment.

According to Russian space agency Roscosmos, the capsule carrying Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner and astronaut Don Pettit of US space agency Nasa landed on the Kazakh steppe near the city of Zhezkazgan at 6.20am (0120 GMT).