In this handout, the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft is seen as it lands with Expedition 42 commander Barry Wilmore of NASA, Alexander Samokutyaev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Elena Serova of Roscosmos on March 12, 2015, near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. (Bill Ingalls/NASA)

After 167 days — almost half a year — three astronauts have . The view on the way down for NASA’s Barry Wilmore and Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) wasn’t too shabby either, with the sun casting a pink-orange hue over a layer of clouds.

The trio touched down in Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, around 10 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, March 11, according to NASA. Combined, they logged 71 million miles during this space voyage, conducting experiments on cell microgravity, the Earth’s atmosphere and the effects of long-term space exposure on the human body, among other areas.

Given what’s coming next for the ISS, that last point could take on important significance. On March 27, 2015, Mike Kelly from the United States and Mikhail Kornienko from Russia will head to the space station to , the longest anyone has ever stayed, to collect “valuable biomedical data that will inform future deep space, long-duration missions,” NASA reported on its ISS blog.

Kelly and Kornienko join Commander Terry Virts of NASA and three other members of Expedition 43.

The group who arrive home yesterday had reason to smile. Wilmore, the expedition’s commander, hadn’t seen his family since this past August. This was his second mission, upping his time in space to 178 days. That’s a little more than half the time Samokutyaev has spent orbiting Earth (331 days). This trip was Serova’s space debut.

Wilmore handed over command of the ISS to Virts at 6:44 p.m. Wednesday. Before the hatch closed and Wilmore and colleagues departed for Earth, a by the crew they left behind, according to NASASpaceFlight: “We wish you a good flight and a soft landing.”

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The ESO 3.6-meter telescope at La Silla observatory in Chile, during observations. (ESO/S. Brunier)