European astronaut Paolo Nespoli has returned safely to Earth after 139 days in space on board the International Space Station (ISS).
The Soyuz capsule carrying the Italian, along with Randy Bresnik of NASA and Sergei Ryazansky of Roscosmos, landed in Kazakhstan at 8:37 this morning.
His arrival back on Earth ends a five-month tour of duty during which time the station orbited the planet 2,224 times.
Nespoli also witnessed 35,000 sunrises and sunsets and travelled 94 million kilometres.
The mission was the 60 year old's third to the ISS.
He has now spent 313 days in space, the second longest amount of time for a European astronaut.
The journey back involved slowing the tiny craft down from 28,800 km/h to zero in only three hours.
It also involved the perilous journey through the Earth's atmosphere, during which time the heatshield on the Soyuz MS-05 reached 1600°C.
The final stage of the landing saw parachutes deployed at an altitude of 10km and the firing of retrorockets just metres before touchdown.
Because the ISS is an orbiting lab, Nespoli carried out over 60 experiments while in space.
His eyes, headaches, sleeping patterns and eating habits were all tracked to gain further insights into how humans adapt to life in space.
He also controlled a humanoid robot in Germany to repair three damaged solar panels across a simulated Mars terrain while in space.
The Expedition 54 crew continues operating the station, with Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos in command.
Along with crewmates Mark Vende Hei and Joe Acaba of NASA, the three-person crew will operate the station until the arrival of three new crew members next Tuesday.
Scott Tingle of NASA, Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), are scheduled to launch on Sunday from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
