Soyuz Spacecraft Carrying 3 Crew Members Back to Earth Undocks From ISS

A Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft carrying 3 crew members back to Earth has undocked from the International Space Station.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft with Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen and Kazakh cosmonaut Aydin Aimbetov has undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) and is headed back to Earth, a RIA Novosti correspondent reports from the Mission Control Center.

The undocking took place at around 00:30 Moscow time on Saturday (21:30 GMT on Friday). The spacecraft is expected to enter the Earth’s atmosphere at about 03:30 Moscow time (00:30 GMT), while the landing is scheduled for 03:52 Moscow time.

Soyuz TMA-16M arrived at the ISS on March 27, bringing Russian cosmonauts Commander Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko, and NASA’s Scott Kelly to the space station. The three comprised the main ISS Expedition 44 crew.

In July, a Soyuz spacecraft brought a backup crew of Russia’s Oleg Kononenko, Japan’s Kimiya Yui and NASA’s Kjell Lindgren to the ISS.

Kononenko, Kornienko, Kelly, Lindgren and Yui remain on the ISS, along with Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov, who arrived at the space station together with Mogensen and Aimbetov earlier this month.

European Space Agency (ESA) flight engineer Andreas Mogensen became Denmark’s first ever astronaut.

The ISS program is a joint project among five participating space agencies: the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Russia’s Roscosmos, the European Space Agency (ESA), Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).