The Russian Soyuz capsule carrying US space tourist Charles Simonyi and two professional astronauts yesterday landed back on Earth in Kazakhastan, the Russian mission control centre said.

"According to the search group, the space capsule landed in the planned region. All of the cosmonauts are feeling normal," a spokesman for the mission control centre said in televised comments. The capsule landed at 8.15 a.m.

Travelling back to earth with Mr Simonyi - the first person to travel into space twice as a tourist - were Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov and US astronaut Michael Fincke.

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