The departure of the Russian Soyuz TMA-18 spaceship from the International Space Station (ISS) was delayed on Friday for technical reasons and will be postponed until Saturday, Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) head Anatoly Perminov said.
The spaceship was meant to undock at 5.39 am Moscow time (01.39 GMT) and land at 8:55 am Moscow time (04:55 GMT) to the south-east of the central Kazakh city of Jezkazgan
Russian cosmonauts Aleksander Skvortsov and Mikhail Korniyenko and NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, who were travelling on board the space ship, have already been returned to the ISS, Perminov said.
The exact time of tomorrow's departure is not yet known, although the spaceship is expected to reach Earth by 9.20-9.30 Moscow time (05.20-05.30 GMT).
Earlier, Head of Russian and Space Corporation Energia Vitaly Lopota said the spacecraft would undock on Friday, despite the technical difficulties.
A new Russian Soyuz TMA-01M spaceship equipped with a new digital computing and telemetric system will blast off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on October 8.
MISSION CONTROL CENTER, September 24 (RIA Novosti)
