Russia's Soyuz TMA-5 spaceship carrying a three-man crew undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) Sunday night, starting its journey back to Earth, the Russian space agency's mission control center in Moscow said.

Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and US astronaut Leroy Chiao, as well as European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori of Italy, left the station at 22:45 Moscow time (1845 GMT) in the landing capsule of the spaceship.

The Soyuz is expected to land early Monday morning in the northern steppes of Kazakhstan, where Russian helicopters and planes, along with a US medical team, are on call for the search operation.

Source: Xinhua