Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut return to Earth after spending six months at the International Space Station

A GROUP of space explorers have touched down safely after spending 167 days in space and travelling more than 112 million kilometres during that time.

US astronauts begin spacewalk at orbiting lab

TWO Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut have returned to Earth aboard a Soyuz space capsule after spending six months at the International Space Station.

Yelena Serova, Alexander Samokutyaev and Barry Wilmore landed in snowy Kazakhstan just after sunrise on Thursday morning.

“The Expedition 42 crew is back on Earth,” said NASA commentator Rob Navias on the US space agency’s live broadcast of the event.

“They have landed in a vertical position, upright,” he added, citing Russian search and recovery forces which routinely go out to pick up the returning spacefarers after they touch down on the remote steppe southeast of Dzhezkazgan.

The trio left Earth on September 26.

They spent 167 days in space and travelled more than 112 million kilometres during that time, NASA said.

The next crew launches from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on March 28. The men on board will be US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka.

Kelly and Kornienko will stay at the research outpost for an entire year instead of the usual six months, “collecting valuable biomedical data that will inform future deep space, long-duration missions”, NASA said.

In this image taken from NASA video, US astronaut Terry Virts(L)working during a spacewalk on March 1, 2015, to prepare the International Space Station for the arrival of commercial space capsules in the coming years. Barry Wilmore and Terry Virts began the spacewalk at 6:52 am (1152 GMT). During the six hour, 45 minute outing, they plan to set up antennas and communications equipment so that future crews launching from Florida on US commercial spacecraft will be able to park at the space station, NASA said. Another main part of their task is to route 400 feet (121 meters) of cable. The spacewalk is the third in eight days for NASA, and is the 187th in the history of the space station. == RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE / MANDATORY CREDIT: "AFP PHOTO HANDOUT-NASA"/ NO MARKETING - NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – NO A LA CARTE SALES / DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS ==