U.S.-Russian Crew Returning From Space

MOSCOW – A U.S.-Russian crew who spent more than six months aboard the international space station were to return to Earth on Saturday with Brazil’s first astronaut, who spent a week in orbit.

American Bill McArthur, Russian Valery Tokarev and Brazilian Marcos Pontes were set to board a Soyuz spacecraft for the journey back home and unhook from the station later Saturday. They were to touch down in the steppes of Kazakhstan Sunday morning Moscow time.

McArthur and Tokarev have been at the space station for more than six months. They are being replaced by Russian commander Pavel Vinogradov and U.S. flight engineer Jeff Williams, who arrived at the station together with Pontes on April 1.

The American space program has depended on the Russians for cargo and astronaut delivery since the February 2003 Columbia explosion grounded the shuttle fleet. The shuttle Discovery visited the station last July but problems with the external fuel tank’s foam insulation have cast doubt on when shuttles might return to space.

Over 15 aircraft and helicopters and some 150 salvage crew have been deployed to the town of Arkalyk in northern Kazakhstan – the area where the Soyuz TMA-7 capsule is expected to land, Vladimir Popov, the head of the Russian space search and rescue service said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.