Three astronauts have completed their almost six months stint at the International Space Station and were back to Earth aboard the Soyuz MS-02. All safe and sound after the undocking of the spacecraft, all three had a smooth touchdown in the grasslands of Kazakhstan at 7:20 in the morning Eastern Time.

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Soyuz MS-02 had ended its mission on the ISS on Monday bringing the three astronauts, Shane Kimbrough, Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko.  With the EOM of the three scientists, the ISS is short by three people until a new set of astronauts will be deployed. Meanwhile, Soyuz MS-02 will be rested for a while to get the necessary upgrading after a long time of decades of service in space.

In a recent report by Space, the hatch of Soyuz MS-02 closed at almost 1:00 in the morning (EDT) of April 10. After three hours they undocked from the ISS and the spacecraft's main engine fired for 4.5 minutes. They downward trip was at 128 meters per second leaving the Earth's orbit until they are back on Earth at a much shorter time compared to the two-day journey to the station last October 2016.

Photos [https://t.co/pqbXCiSsku] and replays [https://t.co/mhreYV1RCC] of today's #Soyuz homecoming with three Space Station crew members. pic.twitter.com/weokIpU0ls

— ISS Updates (@ISS101) April 10, 2017

The space station will be manned by Peggy Whitson who will be replacing Ryzhikov who had commanded the 49^th mission, which is his first space mission. On their journey back to Earth, the astronauts brought with them not only their personal belongings but also science samples and other cargo.

On the other hand, the two others left on the ISS are Thomas Pesquet, the French astronaut, and Oleg Novitskiy, a Russian cosmonaut. By April 20 of this year, two more astronauts, Jack Fischer of NASA and Fyodor Yurchikhin of Russia will be leaving for the ISS from the Baiknonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.