"Houston, they have landed!" The international space station crew returned to Earth safely last week.

Three of the International Space Station (ISS) crew members, representing parts of the world, landed on the steppes of Kazakhstan at 9:58 a.m. on Tuesday last week. While they were in space, the ISS crew members conducted a live TV show, researched with robots, and shared stories.

The three ISS astronauts were flight engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA; Cosmonaut Commander Mikhail Tyurin, from Russia; and Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), from Japan. This was the international crew's first return aboard a Russian spacecraft, a Soyuz capsule, and the first flight since Russia's annexation of Crimea, CBS News reported.

This return also marked the end of their six-month orbital journey. Their expedition is known as "Expedition 39."

"What an exciting time we shared in this increment," Wakata said on Monday, as he gave the station over to NASA astronaut Steve Swanson. "Congratulations, and best wishes to the crew of Expedition 40 for a successful mission," Wakata added, NBC News reported.

Wakata, along with Mastracchio and Tyurin, had apparently enjoyed their eventful and historic time in orbit after arriving at the ISS on Nov. 7, 2013. Wakata became the first Japanese citizen to command the station when he took charge of Expedition 39 on March 10, NBC News reported.

Later on in Expedition 39, Wakata and Mastracchio participated in "Live from Space," a two-hour TV event hosted by Soledad O'Brien that aired on National Geographic Channel, as well as Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, Discovery News reported. The TV program gave viewers from around the world, in more than 140 countries, an idea of what it was like to live and work on the orbiting lab as Wakata gave a guided tour of the $100 billion complex.

This expedition also oversaw the arrival of SpaceX's robotic Dragon capsule, which had launched toward the space station on April 18 on the California-based company's third contracted cargo mission for NASA, the Discovery News reported.  

While aboard the ISS, Tyurin, Mastracchio and Wakata celebrated the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi by delivering an Olympic torch. Mastracchio participated in three spacewalks; two to repair the station's cooling system, and one to replace a computer. The ISS crew last summer, also carried out an extensive damage control to recover from a "potentially catastrophic spacesuit water leak." Also, a full slate of scientific experiments were completed, CBS News reported.

NASA officials stated that Wakata, Mastracchio and Tyurin traveled around Earth 3,000 times during their 188 days in space, in other words they traveled more than 78 million miles (127 million kilometers).