The re-entry capsule of Soyuz TMA-18M returned safely to Earth carrying Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko, Sergey Volkov and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly. Having undocked from the Poisk module of International Space Station at 0105 GMT, the capsule re-entered and made a parachute/rocket arrested landing near Dzhezkazgan on the cloudy and cold Kazakhstan steppes at 0429 GMT on 2 March 2016.
Two of the astronauts, Scott Kelly and Mikail Kornienko were long stayers with 340 days in orbit making with Scott Kelly the current continuous spaceflight record holder for a US astronaut. The absolute record for staying in orbit is held by Valery Polyakov, who previously spent 437 days on the Mir space station.
Sergei Volkov had a more normal ISS mission time with 182 days in orbit. Long mission times are needed for human medical research in that long range missions to the planets will require long periods in space.
