Post date: Nov 19, 2012 12:0:51 AM
Three crew members from the International Space Station head back to Earth in their Soyuz capsule after 127 days in orbit.
IN SPACE (NOVEMBER 18, 2012) (NASA TV) - Three crew members departed the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday (November 18), heading back to Earth.
A Russian-built Soyuz capsule carrying Sunita Williams of the United States, Yuri Malenchenko of Russia and Akihiko Hoshide of Japan undocked from the ISS at 2226GMT.The capsule is scheduled to land on the Kazakh steppe 0153GMT on Monday (November 19).
Williams formally handed over command of the ISS to NASA astronaut Kevin Ford on Saturday (November 17). He and Russians Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin will be the sole ISS crew members until they are joined by another crew of three on December 15.
Since the retirement of the space shuttle fleet last year, the U.S. space agency NASA must rely on Russia to take astronauts to and from the station at a cost of 60 million U.S. dollars each.
NASA is working with private companies to develop craft it hopes will be able to do the job by 2017