Soyuz spacecraft lands safely

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) - Astronauts from the United States and Russia landed safely on Kazakhstan's chilly northern steppes on Thursday after spending almost six months on the International Space Station.

The Russian Soyuz TMA-16 capsule carrying NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and Russian Maxim Surayev touched down gently and was then rolled onto its side by brisk winds near the town of Arkalyk.

Russian Mi-8 helicopters, in a circular formation above the landing zone in the minutes ahead of touchdown, immediately reached the capsule with the astronauts strapped inside, NASA public affairs officer Josh Byerly said.

Williams and Surayev were quickly pulled out of the capsule to a nearby medical tent.

Speaking from the landing site, Byerly said the astronauts appeared to be in good shape.

"Both Max and Jeff are doing extremely well — they both gave the ground team here a thumbs up," Byerly said.

Temperatures at the landing site hovered around minus 6 degrees Celsius (20 Fahrenheit) mark and the movement of all-terrain vehicles was impeded by tall banks of snow.

The astronauts spent about five-and-a-half months on the International Space Station.

Williams and Surayev were to be flown to Moscow later Thursday and then taken to the Russian manned-space training center near the capital.

The duo blasted off to the space station Sept. 30 together with Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, who became the seventh paying space tourist to travel to the station. Laliberte returned to earth 10 days later.

On Wednesday, Williams handed over command of the space station to Russia's Igor Kotov, who will remain aboard until June along with NASA astronaut Timothy J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi of Japan. They are to be joined early next month by NASA's Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko.