Four astronauts returned to Earth early this morning after a six-month stay on the International Space Station.
The SpaceX capsule carrying the astronauts parachuted into the Atlantic off the coast of the US state of Florida.
American space agency NASA astronauts Steven Bowen and Warren Hoburg, Russian astronaut Andrey Feyaev and United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan al Nejadi, the first person from the Arab world to spend a long period in orbit, have returned.
Before leaving the space station where they arrived in March, they said they were eager for hot showers, hot coffee and ocean air. Their return to Earth was delayed by a day due to poor weather conditions at the intended landing site, but in the end the return provided a spectacular sight in the middle of the night as the capsule descended through the skies over Cape Canaveral to its intended site near Jacksonville.
The astronauts expressed their satisfaction and SpaceX Mission Control announced over the radio: "There is a room full of very happy people here."
Spacex shipped their replacements over a week ago.
Another crew change will take place later this month when two Russians and an American return after spending a year on the space station.
Their stay time was doubled when coolant leaked from their Soyuz capsule and a new spacecraft had to be launched.
There are seven astronauts on the International Space Station as crew replacements.
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