Luca Parmitano

ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano, Russian commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg returned to Earth today, landing in the Kazakhstan steppe.

Their return flight, landing at 02:49 GMT (03:49 CET), was in the same Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft that flew them to the International Space Station on 29 May.

Luca and Karen will now travel to Houston, Texas, where they will undergo medical checks before meeting media on 13 November at 13:30 GMT (14:30 CET).

Luca spent five months on the International Space Station for his Volare mission under a bilateral agreement with the Italian space agency and NASA. He conducted more than 30 scientific experiments, performed two spacewalks and operational tasks as well as maintaining the orbital outpost.