American, 2 Russian astronauts land safely

A Soyuz space capsule carrying one American and two Russian astronauts landed safely Saturday morning on the foggy steppes of Kazakhstan, returning the three men to Earth after a 144-day mission on the International Space Station.

NASA's Kevin Ford and Russians Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin had been scheduled to return Friday, but bad weather postponed the landing.

Live footage on NASA TV showed all three men smiling as they were helped out of the capsule and into reclining chairs, which help them acclimate to Earth's gravity.

A NASA TV commentator said only two of 12 search-and-rescue helicopters were allowed to land at the touchdown site because of heavy clouds and fog. The temperature at the time was well below freezing. The crew was then flown to Kostanai, the staging site in Kazakhstan.

Three others -- from Russia, the U.S. and Canada -- remain at the space station. The next three-person crew, two Russians and an American, is set to launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome on March 29. -- AP