Highlights from ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli's return to Earth on 14 December 2017 at the end of the VITA mission to the International Space Station.

After farewells and hatch closure, Paolo and his Soyuz crewmates, departed the International Space Station with undocking at 05:15 GMT (06:15 CET).

Just a few hours later their spacecraft reentered Earth's atmosphere, landing in the Kazakh Steppe at 08:37 GMT (09:37 CET).

The crew were helped out of the Soyuz by a recovery crew and, after medical checks.

Paolo, Randy and Sergey spent 139 days in space. Paolo took part in more than 60 experiments during his Vita mission.