SPACE WIRE
Russia's Soyuz undocks from space station
MOSCOW (AFP) May 04, 2003
The Soyuz vessel carrying cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin and US astronauts Kenneth Bowersox and Donald Pettit has undocked from the International Space Station to begin its journey back to Earth, Russian space officials said early Sunday.

The Soyuz TMA-1 craft, which is due to land in Kazakhstan at 06:07 am Moscow time (0207 GMT) Sunday, undocked from the station at 02:43 am Moscow time, officials at Russia's flight control center near Moscow said.

Bowersox, Pettit and Budarin have been on the ISS since December. They were to have left in March, but their return to Earth was delayed because of the Columbia space shuttle disaster.

Columbia disintegrated during re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere on February 1, killing all seven crew members and leading NASA to suspend all shuttle missions, including those to the ISS.

Russian flight commander Yury Malenchenko and US flight engineer Edward Lu, who travelled aboard Soyuz to the space station are due to stay aboard the ISS for six months.

Russian spacecraft currently provide the only transportation to the space station.

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