A few hours ago the Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, the American astronaut Rick Mastracchio and the Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin returned to Earth on the Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft, which landed safely in Kazakhstan. The three of them spent almost exactly six months on the International Space Station, where they arrived on November 7, 2013. Initially, they were part of Expedition 38, in the second half of their stay they were part of Expedition 39 with Koichi Wakata as commander of the Station.