Springs gently pushed the Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft away from the International Space Station's Zarya module at 11:55 p.m. EDT, putting an astronaut, cosmonaut and space tourist on track to land on Earth in just a few hours. On board were American astronaut and Expedition 18 commander Mike Fincke, Russian cosmonaut and Expedition 18 flight engineer Yury Lonchakov, and American space tourist Charles Simonyi.
A short time later, the spacecraft conducted a first separation burn lasting 15 seconds, adding velocity of just under one meter per second.
As the Soyuz backed away, its docking camera offered views of the station with all four sets of solar arrays. The Expedition 18 crew members helped install the final set of arrays last month during space shuttle Discovery's visit.
The crew, which previously included astronauts Greg Chamitoff and Sandra Magnus, also helped install and activate a water recycling system delivered by shuttle Endeavour last November.
Click "Read more..." to see a cool sequence of undocking images.
A deorbit burn to slow down the vehicle is scheduled around 2:20 a.m. EDT, and the crew hopes for a soft landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan at 3:16 a.m. EDT.
IMAGES: Click to enlarge any of the undocking images grabbed from NASA TV. They were taken by a docking camera on the Soyuz spacecraft.
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