Russian spacecraft undocks from ISS

November 22nd, 2011 - 8:10 am ICT by IANS  

Moscow, Nov 22 (IANS/RIA Novosti) A Russian spacecraft with three crew members onboard undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) Monday night, Russia’s mission control said.

The Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft — carrying Russian cosmonaut Sergey Volkov, Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and American astronaut Michael Fossum — undocked from the Rassvet module of the ISS at 2300 GMT Monday.

The spacecraft was expected to land in a designated area in Kazakhstan around 0300 GMT Tuesday.

The search for the landing capsule will be conducted by 15 aircraft — three planes and 12 Mi-8 helicopters — and six rescue vehicles.

Volkov, Furukawa and Fossum arrived at the ISS onboard Soyuz TMA-02M in June as part of Expedition 29. Their stay at the space station was extended for almost a week due to a delayed arrival of three new ISS crewmembers.

Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft have taken the bulk of crew rotation and cargo missions to the ISS after NASA stopped launching its shuttles earlier this year. Under a contract between Russian space agency Roscosmos and NASA, Soyuz spacecraft will take at least 12 US astronauts to the ISS and back until 2016.

–IANS/RIA Novosti
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