A three-member crew, wedged elbow to elbow in a capsule, has safely returned from the International Space Station (ISS) after a five-month mission. The tiny Soyuz capsule carrying the astronauts softly landed on earth on Friday night.

The land location was in the northeast of Dzhezkazgan town in Kazakhstan. The three astronauts who came back to earth are: NASA’s Kjell Lindgren, JAXA’s Kimiya Yui andRussian Federation Space Agency’s Oleg Kononenko. It was the first time when a crewed-capsule returned from the space station after sunset.

When the capsule landed safely, the trio was placed in helicopters, and was immediately taken formedical exams. It was Lindgren and Yui’s first mission on the ISS, whileKononenko has visited the space station once before.

The three astronauts will now be replaced with NASA’s Tim Kopra, Russia’sYuri Malenchenko and ESA’s Tim Peake. The replacements have been scheduled to be launched on Tuesday fromBaikonur in Kazakhstan.

The Expedition 46 crew will join NASA’s Scott Kelly, who has been on the ISS since March this year, and Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov. Kelly, along with Kornienko and Volkov, will return to earth next year in March. Kelly has been in the orbiting lab 250 miles above earth as a part of NASA’s one-year-mission.

The recently landed trio was launched to the ISS in July andorbited the home planet about 2,256 times. Kelly even tweeted after the trio’s departure from the space station, “They arrived in space like baby birds barely able to fly, and now they soar home as eagles”.