Italian astronaut Nespoli back on Earth

(ANSA) - Rome, December 14 - Italy's Paolo Nespoli is back on Earth. The European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut landed with fellow crew members Randy Bresnik of the United States and Russian Sergei Ryazansky in Kazakhstan in a Soyuz capsule on schedule at 9:38 Italian time at Thursday.
    This means that, after 139 days in space, the Italian Space Agency's (ASI) VITA mission, featuring over 60 experiments, is over.
    The 60-year-old was greeted with temperatures of -16 degrees in Kazakhstan after completing his third space mission.
    Nespoli, nicknamed AstroPaolo after his Twitter handle, and his two colleagues looked tired but satisfied after arriving.
    He has taken his overall tally of days in space up to 313 days, making him the European with the second-longest amount of extraterrestrial experience, after Germany's Thomas Reiter.