Japanese Space Tourists Safely Return to Earth

Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, right, space flight participants Yusaku Maezawa, center, and Yozo Hirano attend a news conference ahead of the expedition to the International Space Station at the Gagarin Cosmonauts' Training Center in Star City outside Moscow, Russia, Oct. 14, 2021. During an interview with the Associated Press on Monday, Dec. 13, 2021, Maezawa said he experienced motion sickness after arriving at the space outpost and it took him a few days to adapt to zero gravity. (Shamil Zhumatov/Pool Photo via AP)

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By Associated Press

December 19, 2021 at 11:57 PM UTC

Updated on

December 20, 2021 at 12:26 PM UTC

Moscow (AP) -- A Japanese billionaire, his producer and a Russian cosmonaut safely returned to Earth on Monday after spending 12 days on the International Space Station.

Fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa, his producer Yozo Hirano and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin made a soft landing in a Russian Soyuz capsule in the steppes of Kazakhstan at 9:13 a.m. (0313 GMT) about 150 kilometers ( 90 miles) southeast of the city of Zhezkazgan.