India, July 26 -- A Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft carrying two Russian cosmonauts along with a NASA astronaut has returned to Earth after the end of their 8-month stint on the International Space Station (ISS).

According to Russia's Roscosmos space agency, cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev, as well as US astronaut Christopher Williams, landed near the Kazakh city of Zhezkazgan on Sunday. The spacecraft landed at 1:27 pm Moscow time (3:57 pm IST).

They had launched for a mission to the orbital outpost on November 27 last year. The 241-day stint on the orbiting outpost was the first space mission for Williams and Mikaev and the second for Kud-Sverchkov.

The crew will be flown by helicopter to Karaganda, where Williams will boar...