KAZAKH STEPPE, April 19: A Russian space capsule landed about 420km off course in Kazakhstan on Saturday but South Korea’s first astronaut and the other two crew were safe.

The Soyuz capsule landed west of the target area and about 20 minutes late after it made a “ballistic landing”, which is much steeper than normal, officials said. Rescue helicopters rushed to the scene.

“The capsule landed with an overshoot. Such things happen,” said mission control spokesman Valery Lyndin.

He said the crew had begun leaving the capsule, which carried Yi So-yeon, a 29-year-old nanotechnology engineer from Seoul, US commander Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko.

The US astronaut looked pale and was not fit enough to take part in a brief news conference. The Korean and the Russian looked fine as they travelled in a helicopter from the site to the Kazakh city of Kustanai.

“Even though it is a very small place you can float back and forth under each other, over each other,” Yi So-yeon said of her experiences in zero gravity at the International Space Station.—Reuters