Sunita Williams back home after 4 months in space

A Russian Soyuz capsule landed on the Kazakh steppe on Monday, delivering a trio of astronauts from a four-month stint on the International Space Station.

The Soyuz TMA-05M capsule, carrying Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and US astronaut Sunita Williams, parachuted through dark, cloudy skies and touched down at 7:30 am IST.

Earlier, the trio bid farewell to their fellow crew-mates Kevin Ford, Evgeny Tarelkin and Oleg Novitskiy, and closed the hatches between the spacecraft before finally undocking at 2226 GMT on Sunday (0356 IST Monday).

The return of Williams, Hoshide and Malenchenko wrapped up their 127-day stay in space, including 125 days spent aboard the station, since the launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 15.

Williams has spent a total of 322 days in space during her two long-duration missions.

She previously served aboard the station as an Expedition 14/15 flight engineer from December 9, 2006 to June 22, 2007.

Williams has a total of 50 hours and 40 minutes of spacewalking time over seven spacewalks, including the three she conducted during Expeditions 32 and 33.

This was also the second trip into space for Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, who visited the station as a STS-124 mission specialist aboard space shuttle Discovery in 2008.

Russian Soyuz Commander Malenchenko wrapped up his fifth spaceflight for a total of 642 days in space, placing him seventh on the all-time endurance list.

Williams transferred the helm of the orbiting laboratory to Ford during a change of command ceremony Saturday afternoon.

Three additional Expedition 34 flight engineers -- NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield, and Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Roman Romanenko -- are scheduled to launch from Baikonur December 19 and dock to the station two days later for a five-month stay.

Hadfield will become the first Canadian to command the station when Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin depart, marking the start of Expedition 35.