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A Soyuz capsule carrying an American and two Russians touched down on target in Kazakhstan on Friday after a descent from the international space station, safely delivering the first two men to follow their fathers into space.

The Soyuz TMA-12 capsule landed at 9:37 a.m. local time, about 55 miles north of Arkalyk in north-central Kazakhstan, Russian Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin told The Associated Press.

Search and recovery crews buzzed in on Mi-8 helicopters and extracted Richard Garriott, Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko from the capsule, which landed on its side on the brushy surface under a clear sky.

“What a great ride that was,” said Garriott, an American computer game designer who paid some $30 million for a 10-day stay on the space station. Sitting in an armchair and wrapped in a blue blanket against the near-freezing temperature on the steppe, he smiled broadly.

“This is obviously a pinnacle experience,” Garriott said in televised comments.

Garriott was greeted by his father, Owen Garriott, a retired NASA astronaut who flew on the U.S. space station Skylab in 1973.

“Hey, Papa-san,” said Richard Garriott, 47. The pair shook hands.

“How come you look so fresh and ready to go?” Owen Garriott, 77, asked his son.

“Because I’m fresh and ready to go — again,” he replied.

Not right away, though.

“I’m looking forward to some fresh food and to calling my loved ones,” said Garriott, who lives in Austin, Texas, and was seen off by his girlfriend and brother, among others, when he rocketed up to the station on another Soyuz craft on Oct. 12.

“I’ve got my father here, but I’ve got other family back home I want to get a hold of.”

Volkov sat next to Garriott. The son of a cosmonaut, he beat out Garriott as the first human being to follow a parent into space when he flew up to the space station six months ago. Kononenko, who also spent 199 days in space, was the last out of the capsule and could not be seen in the TV footage.

The head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, Anatoly Perminov, said on state-run Vesti-24 television that Kononenko had a tougher time than his crewmates during the descent but “feels good now.” It was the first space mission for all three men.

The uneventful descent was a relief for space officials — and the crew — after technical problems caused unusually steep “ballistic descents” for the last two returning crews, putting them hundreds of miles off course and subjecting them to stronger gravitational force than in a usual.

On a Soyuz returning in May, the malfunction of an explosive bolt delayed the separation of the re-entry capsule from the rest of the ship. It forced the crew — including a U.S. astronaut and South Korea’s first space traveler — to endure a rough ride as the gyrating capsule descended facing the wrong way.

It took nearly half an hour for search helicopters to locate the capsule, which landed some 20 minutes late and 260 miles off target, and determine the crew was unharmed.

Last October, a computer glitch sent Malaysia’s first astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts on a steeper-than-normal path during their return to Earth.

Russian space officials said changes had been made to equipment and computer programming to prevent another ballistic descent, but they were clearly relieved at Friday’s on-time, on-target landing.

The Soyuz TMA-12’s module separated without a hitch before it entered the atmosphere, and a series of parachutes gradually slowed its speed from 755 feet per second to about 5 feet per second.

“I can’t recall a more ideal landing,” Perminov said.

Garriott, who created the Ultima computer game series, spent time on the station conducting experiments — including some whose sponsors helped pay for a trip he said cost him a large chunk of his wealth. He also took pictures of the Earth’s surface to measure changes since his father did the same 35 years ago.

Garriott took a Soyuz up to the 10-year-old station along with U.S. astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov, who will stay in orbit for six months. Also on board is U.S. astronaut Gregory Chamitoff.

The U.S. shuttle Endeavor is due to launch in November and carry equipment needed for raising the number of astronauts living at the orbiting outpost from three to six. That transition should occur in the first half of next year.

The head of the Russian state-controlled RKK Energiya company, which builds the Soyuz spacecraft and Progress cargo ships, said Friday that construction of ships for the next few missions was on schedule, but further plans could be jeopardized by a money crunch caused by the nation’s financial crisis. Vitaly Lopota said the banks had been slow to provide loans to the company, and he urged the government to quickly earmark funds.

British plans to allow scientists to use hybrid animal-human embryos for stem cell research won final approval from lawmakers Wednesday in a sweeping overhaul of sensitive science laws. The House of Commons also clarified laws that allow the screening of embryos to produce babies with suitable bone marrow or other material for transplant to sick siblings.

It was the first review of embryo science in Britain in almost 20 years.

The legislators voted 355 to 129 to authorize the proposals after months of sometimes bitter debate that has pitted Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government and scientists against religious leaders, anti-abortion campaigners and others anxious about medical advances.

Brown says he believes scientists seeking to use mixed animal-human embryos for stem cell research into diseases such as Parkinson’s will help improve — and save — millions of lives.

Decisions by Britain’s Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority, an independent body which regulates fertility and embryo research in the U.K., to allow the practice have previously been vulnerable to challenges in court.

While Britain has been seen as a world leader in stem cell and cloning research, similar work to create human embryos from animal eggs is also being conducted in China and the United States.

British lawmakers had already endorsed individual proposals, but Wednesday’s vote involved the complete draft bill.

“One in seven couples need help with fertility treatment, 350,000 people live with Alzheimer’s, every week there are five children born and three young people die from cystic fibrosis — all issues that this bill addresses,” Health Minister Dawn Primarolo told lawmakers, opening a debate on the draft laws.

Britain’s government opted not to allow legislators to use the debate to consider the country’s abortion laws — last drafted in 1990 — frustrating hopes of both anti-abortion lawmakers and those seeking to liberalize current regulations.

Ministers said lawmakers needed to focus on important revisions to rules governing stem cell research and other scientific advances, rather than examine the emotive issue of abortion — which isn’t covered by the draft laws.

Brown is a strong advocate of stem cell science and has said Britain owes it to future generations to support the research. Opponents warn an easing of laws on creating embryos could lead to the genetic engineering of human beings.

The process involves injecting an empty cow or rabbit egg with human DNA. A burst of electricity is then used to trick the egg into dividing regularly, so that it becomes a very early embryo, from which stem cells can hopefully be extracted.

Scientists say the embryos would not be allowed to develop for more than 14 days, and are intended to address the shortage of human eggs available for stem cell research.

Under the new laws, in-vitro fertilization clinics will no longer have to consider the need for a child to have a father when deciding whether to offer treatment to lesbian couples.

Those opposed to the proposal insist the change fails to acknowledge the role of a father in a child’s life.

Opposition Liberal Democrat lawmaker Evan Harris said he had hoped the debate would allow him to put forward proposals to extend the right to have an abortion to women in Northern Ireland — where terminations are not permitted.

Nadine Dorries, a lawmaker with the main opposition Conservatives who attempted in May to reduce the upper time limit for abortions in Britain, said the government had ducked a potential fight over terminations.

British lawmakers voted in May in favor of keeping the current upper time limit for abortions of 24 weeks.

A snow storm and some of the coldest air of the season swept across the central Plains early Wednesday, while rain splattered the southern Plains and the West stayed clear.

Showers, thunderstorms and snow will gradually increase in intensity throughout the day across much of the Midwest and central Rockies.

This storm system will be moving eastward very slowly Wednesday and Thursday as a strong high pressure system hovers over the East, slowing down its forward speed. This could prolong winter storm conditions across the Midwest over the next few days.

Moving south, the storm system’s cold front will push southeast through the southern Plains and into the lower Mississippi Valley by Thursday morning, triggering rain and thunderstorms.

Over the Northeast, lingering rain and snow showers are expected to diminish around midday, with skies clearing. Brisk north winds will kick in, keeping temperatures in the 40s and 50s Wednesday.

Out West, high pressure will bring warm and sunny weather to west of the Rockies into the weekend. However, fire weather will continue to be a concern for southwestern California as gusty dry northeast winds persist and humidity remains low.

Temperatures in the Lower 48 states on Tuesday ranged from a low of 15 degrees at Embarrass, Minn., to a high of 98 degrees at Thermal, Calif.