"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 kilometers (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 420 kilometers (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 230 meters (755 feet) per 5 second to about 1.5 meters (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.

Corruption acceptable if prosperity ensured: Thai poll

Thais are okay with a corrupt government if it can give them a good life, an Abac Poll survey showed yesterday (October 23).

"Agencies need to act immediately to eradicate corruption in Thai society before the country is ruined and it is too hard to rehabilitate. Most people now care about their own interest and that of their group more than public interest," Abac Poll director Noppadon Kannika said.

About 63 per cent of 3,880 respondents countrywide said they believed graft is part and parcel of every government, which was acceptable if the government could bring prosperity to the country and its people.

Some 37 per cent could not accept such an attitude.

The survey was conducted from October 1-22 on people aged over 18 in 18 provinces.

All genders, ages and occupations said they could overlook corruption with conditions. About 68 per cent of respondents aged 40-49, 65 per cent aged 30-39 and 64 per cent aged 50-59 agreed, Noppadon said.

For those aged 18-29, almost 60 per cent could condone such an idea, he said.

More than 60 per cent of working respondents said they could excuse government corruption. Meanwhile 53 per cent of students, the young generation, agreed while 47 per cent disagreed, he said.