ISS astronauts return to Earth

After a three-hour journey, Soyuz TMA-19M, carrying NASA's Tim Kopra, Tim Peake of the European Space Agency and Yuri Malenchenko of the Russian agency Roscosmos touched down at 3:15 p.m. local time (09:15 GMT) about 145 kilometers southeast of Zhezkazgan in Kazakhstan.

Helicopters carrying recovery teams were circling the area as the capsule slowly descended under a massive orange-and-white parachute. Mission control Houston called it a "bull's-eye landing," despite the capsule coming in on its side instead of an upright position.

ESA’s Maj. Peake, a 44-year-old former army helicopter pilot, has become a hero, helping rekindle interest in space exploration. Peake is Britain's first publicly funded British astronaut and also the first Briton to visit the International Space Station.

Tim Peake ran the 42-kilometer London Marathon from 400 kilometers above the Earth, harnessed to a treadmill aboard the ISS. The Briton finished the race in 3 hours and 35 minutes, a record for the fastest marathon in orbit, according to Guinness World Records.

The trio spent 186 days in space since their launch in December 2015. Aboard the ISS, they conducted hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science also testing new technologies that could potentially be used for future human exploration missions.

NASA astronaut Jeff Williams along with Russians Oleg Skripochka and Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos will operate the station for three weeks until the arrival of three new crew members: NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, Russian cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. They are scheduled to launch on July 6 from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.