EDITORS NOTE: Watch the live streaming coverage of the Soyuz Launch from ABC News Digital at the streaming player below, starting at 4:45 pm.
MOSCOW (AP) — An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts have safely returned to earth from the International Space Station.
The Soyuz space capsule carrying the three men landed Saturday morning on the steppes of Kazakhstan after 144 days aboard the ISS.
The men had been scheduled to return on Friday, but the landing was postponed by a day because of bad weather.
Live footage on NASA TV showed all three men smiling as they were helped out of the capsule and into reclining chairs to begin their acclimatization to Earth's gravity.
A NASA TV commentator said only two of 12 search and rescue helicopters were allowed to land because of heavy clouds and fog.
Space officials said the crew would be flown back to the staging site in Kazakhstan.
