Russia's Soyuz undocks from space station

ASTANA (AFP) Oct 28, 2003
The Soyuz vessel carrying US astronaut Edward Lu, Russia's Yuri Malenchenko and Spain's Pedro Duque has undocked from the International Space Station to begin its journey back to Earth, Russian space officials said early Tuesday.

The undocking went as planned, a representative of Russia's space search and rescue agency, Mikhail Polukhin, told AFP.

The Soyuz TMA-2 craft, which is due to land in Kazakhstan at 05:40 am Moscow time (0240 GMT) Tuesday, undocked from the station at 02:17 am Moscow time, officials at Russia's flight control center near Moscow said.

Malenchenko and Lu, who spent six months on board the ISS, were replaced last week by British-born American Michael Foale and Russian Alexander Kaleri.

SPACE.WIRE