A NASA astronaut and two cosmonaut crewmates strapped into their Soyuz ferry ship Monday evening, undocked from the International Space Station and plunged to an on-target landing on the frigid steppe of Kazakhstan early Tuesday to wrap up an eight-month mission.

With Soyuz commander Sergey Ryzhikov strapped into the descent module's center seat, flanked on his left by cosmonaut Alexey Zubritsky and on the right by NASA's Jonny Kim, the Soyuz MS-27/73S spacecraft undocked from the lab at 8:41 p.m. ET.

After moving a safe distance away to a precise point in space, the Soyuz braking rockets fired for four minutes and 42 seconds starting at 11:09 p.m., slowing the ship's 17,100-mph velocity by about 286 mph, just enough to drop the far side of the orbit into Earth's lower atmosphere.

Enduring re-entry temperatures of some 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit -- and rapidly decelerating in the process -- the Soyuz descent module, suspended beneath a large orange-and-white parachute, landed at 12:03 a.m. EST Tuesday (0503 UTC, 10:03am local time in Kazakhstan) and tipped over on its side.

Braving frigid sub-freezing weather, Russian recovery crews and NASA support personnel quickly reached the charred spacecraft, opening the Soyuz's hatch, extracting the crew and making initial medical checks as the trio began re-adjusting to gravity.

Briefly resting in a nearby recliner as is traditional for returning Soyuz crew members, Kim appeared healthy and in good spirits, smiling his thanks after Russian recovery crews presented him with a nested matryoshka doll with his face painted on the outermost shell.

After more detailed medical checks inside a heated inflatable tent, the crew was to be flown by helicopter to the town of Dzhezkazgan where Kim planned to board a NASA jet for the long flight home to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Ryzhikov and Zubritsky will head for Star City near Moscow for debriefings and reunions with family members.

Left behind aboard the space station were NASA Crew 11 fliers Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke, Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and cosmonaut Oleg Platonov.

Also on board: Soyuz MS-28/74S commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, flight engineer Sergei Mikaev and NASA astronaut Christopher Williams. They arrived at the space station on Nov. 27 to replace Ryzhikov, Zubritsky and Kim.

During a change-of-command ceremony on Sunday, Kim said what he will remember most from his eight months in space is "the bond that we shared together."

"I firmly believe that the greatest quality of an astronaut, and a human, is not technical competence, or loyalty, or any of the myriad other things we like to ascribe to astronauts. It's love," he said. "We always gave each other grace and had so much love for each other and everyone who supports us. I think that is what makes space exploration possible."

During their stay aboard the space station, Kim and his crewmates traveled 104 million miles over 3,920 orbits. Kim focused on research and maintenance in the U.S. segment of the station while Ryzhikov and Zubritsky carried out two spacewalks.

The son of South Korean immigrants and a father of three, Kim has a resume that's impressive even by astronaut standards. He is a former Navy SEAL, combat veteran and a Harvard Medical School graduate.

In a pre-launch interview, Kim said he had "some terrible moments" in combat and ended up "just really burnt out. I was very burnt out from the combat, from the war and the loss. ... I needed a way to continue serving, and it seemed logical that medicine would be that vehicle."

Already a SEAL team combat medic, Kim was accepted by Harvard's medical school. Along the way, "I probably went a little too extreme in ensuring that previous successes did not set myself up for the future."

"I ensured that the people I worked with in the hospital didn't know I was previously a SEAL, because I wanted my patients, I wanted my colleagues to think of me as dependable and proficient and a good physician. Not because I used to be a SEAL, but because that's who I was."