MOSCOW, March 15 (RIA Novosti) – A Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft with three crewmembers from the International Space Station (ISS) is due to land on Saturday at 7:06 a.m. Moscow time (3:06 a.m. GMT) 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the town of Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, Federal Air Transport Agency Rosaviatsia said on Friday.
Bad weather conditions forced the Russian space agency Roscosmos to postpone the undocking and landing of three Expedition 34 crewmembers – Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky, Yevgeny Tarelkin, and NASA astronaut Kevin Ford – by one day.
Novitsky, Tarelkin and Ford arrived at the ISS in October 2012 on board the Soyuz TMA-06M. After the undocking, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, and US astronaut Thomas Marshburn will remain on the space station. Hadfield took over command of the ISS from Ford on Wednesday.
In late March, three crewmembers of Expedition 35 – Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy – are expected to arrive at the ISS on board a Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft.