After spending 199 days at the International Space Station (ISS), crew of three astronauts has safely returned on earth. They landed in a remote area of Kazakhstan, after completing more than expected stint at the ISS.

Their stay was extended for a month owing to a Russian rocket failure. NASA's Terry Virts, Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency and Russia's Anton Shkaplerov have come back after their ISS mission. The crew's capsule landed on about 145km southeast of Dzhezkazgan.

The extended stay helped Cristoforetti to register a new record of the single longest spaceflight by a woman. The mission was extended due to the failed launch of a Russian cargo ship in April. The failed rocket used to launch spacecraft carrying crew. Therefore, Russian officials delayed the crew's return and further launches as well.

Investigation was carried out in the matter. Last week, a Soyuz rocket successfully launched a satellite and new crew is expected to head to the station in July. Virts, expedition's commander, gave a tight hug to three crewmembers remaining aboard at the ISS. He said that the additional days spent at the ISS are bonus days for the crew. Later, the astronauts locked themselves inside the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft and started their journey for earth.

They started shortly after 7am and aimed to land in central Kazakhstan around 2pm. "All Soyuz systems are operating in excellent fashion. No issues whatsoever at this stage", said Russia's mission control near Moscow.