Expedition 20 Commander Gennady Padalka, Flight Engineer Michael Barratt and spaceflight participant Guy Laliberte, the Canadian mogul worth £1.5billion after founding Cirque du Soleil, paid a reported £22million to travel to the International Space Station, have returned to Earth, landing on the steppe of Kazakhstan in their Soyuz TMA-14 spacecraft. Landing occurred at 12:32 a.m. EDT, 10:32 a.m. Kazakhstan time.

Padalka and Barratt stayed aboard the orbiting laboratory for 197 days. The duo arrived at the station in March to begin Expedition 19 then transitioned to the six-member Expedition 20 crew in May. Padalka commanded both Expedition crews. Laliberte launched September 30 with the Expedition 21 crew and spent nine days on the station.

The three were scheduled to fly back to the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia outside Moscow early Sunday for reunions with their families, and for Padalka and Barratt, the start of their reorientation to a gravity environment after a half year off the planet.

Photo on right: Russian search and rescue service specialists carry space tourist and Canadian billionaire, center, Guy Laliberte, who wears his familiar red clown nose, after landing with The Soyuz spacecraft crew members, Commander Gennady Padalka, and Flight Engineer Michael Barratt, near the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan on Oct. 11, 2009. Yuri Kochetkov/Associated Press