Three astronauts who left the International...

The Soyuz TMA-15 undocked from the orbiter at about 7:00 a.m. Moscow time (04:00 GMT) on Tuesday with Belgian Frank De Winne, Russian Roman Romanenko and Canadian Robert Thirsk on board. The spacecraft is expected to land at about 10:16 Moscow time (7:16 GMT) near the northern Kazakh city of Karkalyk.

A Mission Control spokesman said the landing area was covered by thick fog.

"The weather in Kazakhstan is worse than we expected, but we hope that it gets better by morning," a mission control spokesman said.

Russian meteorologists, however, have forecast fair weather with some clouds in the area this morning.

MISSION CONTROL CENTER, December 1 (RIA Novosti)