Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan - NASA's oldest serving astronaut touched down to a birthday cake as he returned to Earth Sunday after spending seven months on the International Space Station!

Don Pettit turned 70 while hurtling towards Earth in a small Soyuz capsule on Sunday morning, after wrapping up more than 220 days spent in space.

Over the course of his stint on the ISS, he orbited the Earth 3,520 times and travelled a total of 93.3 million miles. It was fourth trip for Pettit, who has spent a total of 18 months in orbit throughout his career.

"Today at 4:20 Moscow time, the Soyuz MS-26 landing craft with Alexei Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner and Donald (Don) Pettit aboard landed near the Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan," Russia's space agency Roscosmos announced in a statement.

Pictures released by NASA of Pettit's re-entry show a tiny capsule hurtling towards the ground. A massive parachute slows its descent before it gently touches down.

The three astronauts arrived in a field in remote southeast Kazakhstan. They each gave thumbs up gestures as they were carried from their spacecraft into a medical tent by rescuers.

Pettit had spent his time in orbit conducting research to enhance "in-orbit metal 3D printing capabilities, advance water sanitization technologies, explore plant growth under varying water conditions, and investigate fire behavior in microgravity," a NASA statement said.

The crew are currently undergoing routine post-landing medical checks and then will be taken to a recovery staging area in Karaganda, Kazakhstan.

From there, Pettit will board a NASA plane bound for the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

NASA officials at the landing site said "Pettit is doing well and in the range of what is expected for him following return to Earth."