Three astronauts landed safely on the Kazakh steppe today after blasting back from the International Space Station - but then had to endure the frustrations of bad weather back on earth.
The Soyuz capsule carrying the trio - a Russian, an American and a Spaniard - made what a NASA spokesman called a "dream landing" in Arkalyk, 330 km (200 miles) southwest of the Kazakh capital Astana.
But when they were being transported by helicopter to Astana bad weather closed in near the Kazakh capital and the crew - two of whom had manned the ISS for six months - were forced to return to Arkalyk for a couple of hours.
Russian Yuri Malenchenko, American Edward Lu and Pedro Duque of Spain landed in their Soyuz TMA-2 capsule without incident.
In May, a US-Russian three-man crew in an identical capsule landed hundreds of kilometres off target. Rescuers spent hours searching for crew members, who managed to crawl out of the descent capsule. The ship's radio antenna had been broken.
NASA is dependant on the Russians to keep the ISS programme going, with missions to replace astronauts and replenish the international station's supplies. The US space shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry in February, killing seven astronauts and grounding NASA shuttle missions.