Ground personnel carry U.S. astronaut Leroy Chiao (C) in Arkalyk airport in northern Kazakhstan April 25, 2005. A Russian Soyuz space capsule touched down safely at night on Monday bringing the crew of U.S. astronaut Leroy Chiao, Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori, back to Earth from the International Space Station. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)

    MOSCOW, April 25 (Xinhuanet) -- Russia's Soyuz spaceship carrying a three-man crew from the International Space Station (ISS) landed on the Kazakh steppe early Monday morning, Moscow-based Mission Control officials said.

    The Soyuz TMA-5 capsule landed about 90 km north of the Kazakh town of Arkalyk at 02:08 a.m. Moscow time (2208 GMT), bringing Russian Salizhan Sharipov, American Leroy Chiao and Italian Roberto Vittori safely back to Earth, Mission Control officials were quoted by Interfax as saying.

    "All proceeded as planned," a Mission Control spokesman told Itar-Tass.

    Helicopters spotted the capsule as it made a soft landing on the Kazakh steppe two hours before daybreak. The Soyuz capsule unfurled a large parachute after it entered the atmosphere and fired a final burst of rockets to cushion its landing on the steppe.

    Engineers followed the descent of the capsule on a large screenat the Mission Control Center outside Moscow. Mission Control officials said the three astronauts reported by a satellite link that they were feeling fine.

    Sharipov and Chiao, who completed their 192-day mission as the 10th crew on the orbiting laboratory, left the station at 22:45 Moscow time (1845 GMT) along with Vittori, who spent eight days onboard the ISS conducting scientific experiments.

    Sharipov undocked the spaceship using automatic systems and pulled it back to a safe distance before it started its descent, Valery Lyndin, spokesman of the Mission Control Center, was quotedby Itar-Tass as saying.

    Russia's space program has been the station's lifeline for two years since the suspension of US shuttle flights after the Columbia disaster. US shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it returned to Earth on Feb. 1, 2003, killing seven astronauts onboard.

    The 11th crew to the ISS, Russian Sergei Krikalev and American John Phillips, along with Roberto Vittori of the European Space Agency, was lifted into space in a Soyuz capsule on April 15 to replace Sharipov and Chiao, who had been working in the station since October.

    One of the new crew's major tasks is to welcome US space shuttle Discovery to the station as the US space agency NASA is expected to resume shuttle flights as early as May 15.

    Krikalev and Phillips will be observing the condition of the insulating tiles as the Discovery approaches the ISS, conducting aphoto survey of the exterior of the shuttle while it is maneuvering prior to docking. Enditem