A final dazzling view of earth from the international space station for three astronauts heading home.
U.S. Astronaut Ron Garan and Russian cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyeav say their goodbyes before squeezing into the Soyuz space capsule for the journey home.
The three had spent a total of 164 days in space.
This dramatic footage shows the Soyuz capsule landing safely in Kazakhstan on Friday at around 10am local time, in what one NASA commentator called a 'bullseye' landing.
The Soyuz's soft landing engines fire a split second before touchdown to help buffer its landing.
Russian helicopters carrying medics are immediately at the scene to extract the three men from the capsule.
Another three-man crew remains at the International Space Station, which is a recently completed $100 billion project involving 16 nations.
Sunita Rappai, Reuters
