Article Posted on : - Mar 18, 2010

The Soyuz spacecraft undocks from the ISS. A NASA TV Photo

WASHINGTON (BNS): The Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft, carrying Expedition 22 crew members, undocked from the International Space Station on Thursday and is heading home, NASA said.

The spacecraft with US astronaut Jeff Williams and Russian cosmonaut Maxim Surayev is scheduled to touch down Earth at 14:23 Moscow time (11:23 GMT). It undocked from the Poisk Mini-Research Module at 4:03 a.m. EDT, the space agency said.

The two astronauts are returning home after spending 167 days at the ISS.

The Soyuz TMA-16 was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in September, 2009 to examine Poisk -- the new Mini-Research Module -- docked with the Russian segment of the orbital station in November last year.