Soyuz MS-08 with three-man crew on board separates from ISS

KOROLYOV /Moscow Region/. KAZINFORM The Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft with three participants in the prolonged space expedition 55/56 has separated from the International Space Station (ISS) and begun the journey home, Mission Control near Moscow told the media on Thursday.

"The Soyuz MS-08 has been detached from the ISS. According to the telemetry data, the procedure was normal. The commander said he had no critical remarks to make," Mission Control's spokesman said, TASS reports.

The trio returning from the ISS to the Earth are Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronauts Richard Arnold and Andrew Feustel.

At 13:51 the engines of Soyuz MS-08 will be turned on to slow down the spacecraft and send it into descent. The reentry capsule is expected to touch the surface near the city of Dzhezkazgan at 14:45 Moscow time.

A crew of three - Roscosmos's Sergei Prokopiev, and US and German astronauts Serena Aunon-Chancellor and Alexander Gerst - remains on the ISS. The next expedition - Russia's Alexei Ovchinin and the United States' Nick Hague will leave Baikonur on board the Soyuz MS-10 for the ISS on October 11.