Three astronauts returned safely to earth from the International Space Station yesterday aboard a Soviet-era capsule whose mission follows an unprecedented spate of Russian space accidents.

Space officials said the Soyuz TMA-21 capsule landed on its side in the wind-swept steppes of the ex-Soviet republic of Kazakhstan.

“A bulls-eye landing for the Soyuz TMA-21,” a Nasa commentator said in a live video feed while Russian mission control flashed a message on its screen reading: “Landing confirmed!”

A smiling but weary commander Alexander Samokutyaye was later shown being carried out of the capsule in the arms of rescue Kazakh workers under a dazzling blue sky. The two Russians and their Nasa counterpart had earlier said heartfelt goodbyes to their three colleagues on board the station following an eventful mission that at one stage saw them mulling the possibility of a forced evacuation.

“It was great sharing space with you,” the next mission’s commander Mike Fossum told the departing crew as they started their journey home over northern China.

The Soviet-era vessel left behind a skeleton crew of three – Nasa’s Fossum and Russia’s Sergei Volkov along with Japanese flight engineer Satoshi Furukawa – on board the orbiter at one of the tensest times in its storied history.