A trio of U.S. and Russian astronauts have landed on the Kazakhstan steppe after a four-month mission at the International Space Station.

The Russian Soyuz capsule, carrying American Joseph Acaba and Russians Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin, touched down Monday.

The Soyuz capsules remain the only means of transporting astronauts to the space station since NASA decommissioned its shuttle fleet last year.

A three-member crew remains in orbit. They will be joined next month by U.S. astronaut Kevin Ford and Russians Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin.