Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft returns Expedition 37 crew safely to Earth

Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin after landing back on Earth in Kazakhstan Nov. 10, 2013 on a Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft with crewmates Karen Nyberg of NASA and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency. 

The Olympic torch arrived at the space station on Nov. 7 with another Soyuz crew.

Credit: NASA TV

A Russian Soyuz space capsule landed safely on the steppes of Kazakhstan Sunday (Nov. 10), returning cosmonauts and two astronauts to Earth along with the Olympic torch.

The Soyuz spacecraft landed at 9:49 p.m. EST (0249 Nov. 11 GMT) in central Kazakhstan, where the local time was Monday morning.

Frigid temperatures greeted the returning space travelers — cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano — after five and a half months in space.

"The initial reports indicate a bull's eye landing for the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft and its crew," NASA spokesman Rob Navias said during the agency's televised landing commentary.

View from the Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft as it undocks from the ISS