Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying two astronauts from the International Space Station landed safely in northern Kazakhstan on Thursday.

Russia's Mission Control announced that NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and Russian flight engineer Maxim Suraev landed without any difficulty in the vast steppe near the town of Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan.

Making announcement of Soyuz space capsule’s return, Russia's Mission Control said, “The descent capsule of the Soyuz TMA-16 ... has landed.”

The two astronauts were serving the International Space Station for more than five months.

Now, Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov and other crewmembers are preparing to blast off to the International Space Station in April.

Alexander Skvortsov and his crewmates will join Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, Timothy Creamer from the US and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi on the ISS.