A WOMAN took command of the International Space Station for only the second time as three US and Russian colleagues made a safe return from the orbiting space lab to the Kazakh steppe.

The Soyuz TMA-04M capsule touched down with US astronaut Joe Acaba and Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin aboard, after deploying a huge white parachute and making a pin-point descent with helicopters tracking its progress.

NASA television footage showed the smiling men relaxing in lounge chairs and sipping warm drinks from thermoses while medical teams checked their pulses and chatted to them about their trip.

"It's good to be home," a NASA official quoted Acaba as saying the moment he was pulled out of the Russian capsule to mark the formal end of his 125-day stay in space.

The crew then set what may become a new tradition by signing their names on the Soyuz capsule in honour of their journey.

"I have not seen that before," a NASA television commentator observed.

The three leave behind another trio led by new commander Suni Williams - a US space veteran who has logged the most days in orbit by a woman as well as the greatest number of hours conducting space walks.

Williams is now in charge of a crew also comprised of Japan's Aki Hoshide and the Russian Yury Malenchenko.

The trio had been set to be joined by a new expedition on October 17.

But Russian space officials said they may have to delay the next lift-off by about a week due to the necessary replacement of a piece of Soyuz TMA-06M on-board equipment.

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Woman takes command of Int'l Space Station