Arkalyk, Kazakhstan ? A Soyuz space capsule carrying an American, a Russian and a Spaniard from the international space station landed safely early today in the wide open steppes of Kazakhstan, Russian Mission Control said.

American Ed Lu and Russian Yuri Malenchenko, who flew to the space station nearly six months ago in the same Soyuz, and Spaniard Pedro Duque, who arrived at the station eight days ago on a different capsule, emerged smiling.

“Everything went great. We were very fortunate. It was as smooth a landing as could have been hoped for,” said Gen. Vladimir Popov, who heads the team for Russia’s space search-and-rescue operations.

NASA spokesman Ron Navias agreed, saying, “It was a dream landing. It is almost as if they hit the X-mark on the ground.”

The 3 1/2-hour trip back to Earth was only the second time a U.S. astronaut has returned in a Russian craft to foreign soil. Since the disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia in February put NASA manned space flights on hold, the Russian Soyuz capsules have been the linchpin of the space station program.

Officials at Mission Control outside Moscow and others waiting in Kazakhstan for the landing were pleased that this mission avoided the wild ride of the last Soyuz descent in May, which ended with the American and Russian crew going some 250 miles off-course due to a computer error. The capsule landed at 5:40 a.m. Moscow time (8:40 p.m. CDT).

Thirteen helicopters, four planes and off-terrain vehicles participated in the operation. Search teams included flight surgeons from NASA and the European Space Agency.