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Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft with three crew members starts deorbiting burn

The spacecraft is expected to land in Kazakhstan at 4:22 Moscow time.

KOROLEV /Moscow Region/, September 3. /TASS/. Russia’s Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft with three crew members on board is performing a retrograde burn to ensure proper velocity and positioning for a safe landing, a Russian Mission Control center official told TASS on Sunday.

"A command for a retrograde burn has been issued," the source said.

The Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft with Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer on board undocked from the ISS at 00:58 Moscow time on Sunday. It is expected to touch down southeast of Kazakhstan’s Zhezkazgan at 4:22 Moscow time.

Whitson arrived to the International Space Station on November 17, 2016 and spent nearly one year on the orbit. Yurchikhin and Fischer arrived to the ISS on April 20, 2017, and their mission lasted 135 days.

The ISS crew will comprise Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazansky, NASA astronaut Randolph Bresnik and ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli. They are to be joined by Russia’s Aleksandr Misurkin, and NASA’s Mark Vande Hei and Joseph Acaba, whose Soyuz MS-06 is due to blast off on September 13.

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