Soyuz returns to Earth from ISS ahead of schedule

MOSCOW - The Russian Soyuz capsule landed safely early Friday after disembarking from the International Space Station (ISS) four days earlier than originally planned.

Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and astronauts Shannon Walker and Douglas Wheelock touched down in Kazakhstan at 0446 GMT, after undocking from the ISS at 0123 GMT, according to Russia’s space agency Roskosmos.

Assistants were flying to the landing site, a few dozen kilometres from Arkalyk in the east of the country, to check on the capsule’s passengers after their 162 days in space.

The Soyuz had been scheduled to return Nov 30, but the trip was moved up because of a summit of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) from Dec 1-2. The summit will lead authorities to close the airspace over the Central Asian country.

The ISS will be maintained over the next few weeks by a three-men crew consisting of cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka as well as astronaut Sott Kelly. They are soon to be joined by cosmonaut Dmitry Kondratyev, astronaut Cady Coleman and their Italian colleague Paolo Nespoli, who are set to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Dec 15.