Expedition 13 Commander Pavel Vinogradov, Flight Engineer Jeff Williams and Spaceflight Participant Anousheh Ansari landed in the steppes of Kazakhstan Thursday at 9:13 p.m. EDT.
After saying their farewells to Expedition 14 then entering their Soyuz spacecraft for the ride home, they undocked from the International Space Station at 5:53 p.m.
The station’s new residents are Expedition 14 Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria and Flight Engineer Mikhail Tyurin. Thomas Reiter, a European Space Agency astronaut, joined Expedition 14 after having been an Expedition 13 flight engineer since July. Space Shuttle Atlantis took Reiter to the International Space Station returning the orbiting laboratory to a three-person crew.
Lopez-Alegria and Tyurin are scheduled for a six-month stay in space. Reiter is expected to return to Earth in December aboard Space Shuttle Discovery.
