The Russian Soyuz TMA-18 spaceship with three crew members on board will depart early on Friday from the International Space Station, a spokesman for Russia's Mission Control said.

The three crew members are Russian cosmonauts Aleksander Skvortsov and Mikhail Korniyenko and NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell-Dyson.

The Soyuz spaceship is expected to undock from the ISS at 05:34 am Moscow time (01:34 GMT) and land at 08:55 am Moscow time (04:55 GMT) to the south-east of the central Kazakh city of Jezkazgan, the spokesman said.

NASA astronaut Douglas Wheelock will take over from Expedition 24 Commander Alexander Skvortsov on Friday after midday, he said.

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

A new Russian Soyuz TMA-01M spaceship equipped with a new digital computing and telemetric system will blast off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on October 8.

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First Kourou launch Of Soyuz-ST Rocket Could Be March 2011

The first flight of Russia's Soyuz-ST carrier rocket from the European space center in French Guiana may take place in March 2011, a senior Russian space official said on Wednesday.

The Soyuz-ST was originally scheduled to blast off from the European Space Agency's Kourou Space Center carrying a French satellite, Hylas, on December 17, but the launch was called off. The French operator said it was because it had become clear the Russian rocket would not be ready to fly by the end of the year.

Instead, Hylas will be taken into orbit by European-made Ariane 5 rocket, vice president of the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos, Viktor Remishevsky, told the Rossiya 24 TV channel.

The Ariane 5 will blast off with Hylas and another satellite, Intelsat 17, in late November, CEO of France's launch services firm Arianespace, Jean-Yves Le Gall, said last week.

"The next spacecraft – these could be the Pleiades satellites of the French space agency – are scheduled to be launched in March 2011," Remishevsky said.

Roscosmos and Arianespace sealed a deal in 2008 to launch 10 Soyuz-ST carrier rockets from Kourou.

The Kourou Space Center's proximity to the Equator means it is nearly ideal for the launch of geostationary satellites and the Soyuz-ST will be able to orbit heavier satellites than those launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan and Plesetsk in northern Russia.

Source: RIA Novosti

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