► Japanese Astronaut returning to Earth

Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui and 2 other crewmembers from the United States and Russia are set to return to Earth after completing their mission at the International Space Station. The three boarded a Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked at the ISS at around 6:00 UTC on Friday to prepare for undocking. Their craft left the ISS at 9:49 UTC. During its 3-hour-and-23-minute return flight, the Soyuz is to go through maneuvers to deorbit, reenter the atmosphere and deploy parachutes. It is expected to land on a plain in Kazakhstan, central Asia, at around 13:12 UTC. Yui, a JAXA astronaut and former Air Self-Defense Force pilot, has been on the space station since July. In August, he played a key role in docking the Japanese unmanned cargo craft Kounotori 5 using a robot arm.