Article Posted on : - Mar 19, 2010

The Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 22 crew members near the city of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan on Thursday. A NASA Photo

MOSCOW (BNS): The Soyuz TMA 16 spacecraft has safely touched down Earth, bringing back Russia's Maxim Suraev and America's Jeffrey Williams home after a 167-day sojourn at the International Space Station.

The spacecraft landed at the city of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan on its scheduled time at 14:23 Moscow time (11:23 GMT) on Thursday.

According to the medical brigades located at the landing spot, health status of both crew members was fine, Russian space agency Roscosmos said.

The Soyuz TMA-16 was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome on September 30, 2009 to examine Poisk -- the new Mini-Research Module -- docked with the Russian segment of the orbital station in November last year.