Moscow ? A Russian capsule carrying South Korea’s first astronaut touched down 260 miles off target in northern Kazakhstan on Saturday after hurtling through the atmosphere in a bone-jarring descent from the international space station.

It was the second time in a row – and the third since 2003 – that the Soyuz landing went awry.

Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said the condition of the crew – South Korean bioengineer Yi So-yeon, American astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko – was satisfactory, though the three had been subjected to severe gravitational forces during the re-entry.

The Russian TMA-11 craft touched down about 260 miles off its mark, Lyndin said, a highly unusual distance given how precisely engineers plan for such landings.