A Russian cosmonaut, a NASA physician-astronaut and outgoing Canadian space station commander Chris Hadfield, whose deft use of social media turned him into an orbital superstar, undocked and plunged back to Earth Monday to close out a five-month stay in space.

Two days after an impromptu spacewalk to fix a coolant leak -- and one day after a YouTube video of Hadfield singing David Bowie's "Space Oddity" went viral with more than 1.5 million views -- Hadfield, Thomas Marshburn and Soyuz TMA-07M commander Roman Romanenko undocked from the station at 7:08 p.m. ET.

After moving a safe distance away from the sprawling lab complex, Romanenko monitored an automated four-minute 45-second rocket firing starting at 9:37 p.m., slowing the ship by 286 mph and putting it on course for a landing near Karaganda, Kazakhstan.

A half hour later, the three modules making up the Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft separated and the crew's descent module, the only part of the ship equipped with a protective heat shield, fell into the discernible atmosphere at an altitude of about 62 miles.

Nine minutes after that, at an altitude of about 6.7 miles, a large braking parachute unfurled and long-range television cameras followed the craft as it descended to a jarring rocket-assisted touchdown at 10:31 p.m. (8:31 a.m. Tuesday local time).

The weather was ideal and Russian recovery crews stationed nearby quickly rushed in to "safe" the descent module and help the returning station fliers out of the cramped cabin as they began their readjustment to gravity after 146 days in weightlessness.

Live television views from the Kazakh steppe showed the charred module resting on its side, surrounded by recovery personnel. As usual, recliners were set up near the spacecraft where the Soyuz crew members rested after they were pulled from the capsule.

All three looked healthy and in good spirits, smiling and chatting easily as they relaxed in their pressure suits.

"That was quite a ride home," Hadfield told someone by phone.

After brief medical checks and satellite phone calls to family and friends, Romanenko, Hadfield and Marshburn were expected to be flown to Karaganda where they will split up. Romanenko will board a Russian plane for a flight back to Star City near Moscow while Hadfield and Marshburn head back to Houston aboard a NASA jet.

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Star space station commander and crew make it home