Moscow, Sep 11 (IANS/ITAR -TASS): Russia’s Soyuz TMA-12M manned spaceship with three members of the International Space Station (ISS) crew on board landed in Kazakhstan early Thursday, a spokesman for the mission control centre told ITAR-TASS.

“The module landed in the designated area in the steppes 148 km southeast of Kazakhstan’s city of Dzhezkazgan at 6.23 a.m. Moscow time,” the spokesman said, adding that rescuers were heading for the landing site.

The three ISS crew members -- Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artyomyev, and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson -- have worked aboard the ISS for about 170 days.

The remaining crew on board the International Space Station include Russian cosmonaut Maksim Surayev, who took over the command from Swanson, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst.

The next space expedition will take off Sep 26 from the Baikonur space centre on board a Soyuz TMS-14M spaceship. The crew will include Russian cosmonauts Yelena Serova and Aleksandr Samokutyayev and NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore.