Three astronauts have returned home after spending time as crew members aboard the International Space Station. These space explorers witnessed a total of 2,750 sunrises in lower Earth orbit during their mission, and returned to Earth Wednesday.

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These three space crew members of Expedition 48 include a NASA astronaut along with two Russian cosmonauts, as they landed during a clear morning after spending six months more than a hundred miles above the surface of the planet.

American astronaut Jeff Williams is also a record holder spending the longest time in orbit at 534 days, spanning more than four missions. Williams currently holds the American record for spending the most time in space, beating NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, after spending almost a year at the space station. The world record is set at 879 days in orbit by Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka.

Along with Russians Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka, the three space explorers logged in a total of 2,752 complete Earth orbits at 72.8 million miles. The astronauts landed on the southern steppes of Kazakhstan in Central Asia at 7:13 A.M. local time.

After being extracted safely out of the Russian Soyuz capsule, landing sideways, the astronauts relaxed and stretched around on chairs, all smiles, as they made some phone calls.

The space explorers were then transferred to a medical outpost for routine checkup as they were monitored to see how well they adjust to gravity.

During their spaceflight back home, they spent three and a half hours until touchdown where they breathed the fresh mountain air at 19 degrees Celsius, some 90 miles away from Zhezkazgan. According to NASA spokesman, Dan Huot, the capsule landed safely after launching a large parachute during second engine firings.

Their mission aboard the orbiting space laboratory involved experiments, including the first inflatable space module that is deployed during orbit, where the astronauts brought home air samples from the space habitat.