Russian spacecraft heads to Earth on a second try

The departure of the spacecraft, piloted by Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Korniyenko and NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell-Dyson, was postponed on Friday for 24 hours due to a false alarm signal sent by an airlock sensor.

The spacecraft is expected to land near the town of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan at 09.23 Moscow time (05.23 GMT) on Saturday.

Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA astronauts Douglas Wheelock and Shannon Walker continue working at the space station.

A Russian Soyuz TMA-01M spacecraft equipped with new digital computing and telemetric systems will blast off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on October 8 to bring Russian cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronaut Scott J. Kelly to the ISS.

The docking of Soyuz TMA-01M with the orbital station is scheduled for October 10; Kazinform cites RIA Novosti.

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