By Xinhua,
Moscow : South Korea’s first astronaut Yi So-yeon left the International Space Station (ISS) to return to earth on Saturday.
The Soyuz spaceship carrying Yi, U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko is expected to touch down at 12:31 Moscow time (0931 GMT).
The landing capsule of the Soyuz TMA-11 spaceship is to land inthe Kazakh steppe 80 km north of the Kazakh city of Arkalyk, Valery Lyndin, a spokesman for the Mission Control Centre based near Moscow, was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.
Ground rescue and search services have been in readiness since Friday. The Federal Aeronavigation Service said all the forces andmeans had moved to the bases in the cities of Kustanai, Baikonur, Karaganda, Arkalyk and Dzhezkazgan.
If the capsule lands on an unplanned area, rescue groups are ready to meet the crew there. After finding the craft, specialists will open the hatches and render medical and other help to the cosmonauts.
Whitson and Malenchenko worked in orbit for more than 191 days, while Yi, a 29-year-old female engineer, arrived at the ISS on April 10 together with Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, the ISS Expedition 17 crew who will work in orbit till next autumn.