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US space tourist returns from space station
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-10-24 13:40

In this Oct. 14, 2008 photo provided by NASA, NASA astronaut Greg Chamitoff, left, Expedition 17/18 flight engineer, and American spaceflight participant Richard Garriott pose for a photo in the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station. Garriott landed early Friday morning, Oct. 24, 2008 in northern Kazakhstan, along with 2 cosmonauts, aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule. [Agencies]

MOSCOW – Space officials say a Soyuz capsule carrying an American and two Russians back to Earth from the international space station has touched down on target in Kazakhstan.

Russian Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin says the crew of the TMA-12 felt fine after the landing at 11:37 p.m. EDT on Friday.

A NASA TV announcer said Mi-8 helicopters were landing at the site near Arkalyk in north-central Kazakhstan to fetch the crew and the hatch was opened.

American Richard Garriott paid some $30 million for a 10-day stay on the space station. He is the son of a NASA astronaut and the first American to follow a parent into space.

Cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko spent six months at the station.