A Russian Soyuz space capsule carrying a U.S. astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut from the International Space Station landed safely in Kazakhstan on Thursday.

The capsule -- ferrying Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Maxim Suraev -- landed in the vast steppe near the town of Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan as planned, Russia's Mission Control said.The capsule, charred on re-entry, ended its three-and-a-half-hour ride to Earth in a puff of dust after activating its boosters to cushion the touchdown.

"The crew is safe. They say they are in a great mood," a Mission Control official told Reuters by telephone several minutes later, while rescue teams were opening the hatch of the capsule and preparing for medical checks on the crew.

Three men remain aboard the $100 billion, 16-nation ISS: U.S. Flight Engineer Timothy Creamer, Japanese Flight Engineer Soichi Noguchi and Russian Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov.

The expedition, which is numbered 23 and is led by Kotov, will expand to a six-member crew on April 4 after three others -- Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Korniyenko and U.S. astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson -- arrive at the ISS aboard a Soyuz spacecraft.