Three members of the current crew on board the International Space Station will return to Earth as scheduled despite the delay of the next Soyuz spacecraft launch, Russia's space agency Roscosmos said on Monday.
The landing of the advanced Soyuz TMA-M spacecraft has been scheduled for March 16 at a designated area in Kazakhstan, RIA-Novosti reported.
"Russian cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka, and U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly will return to Earth on Wednesday [March 16] as planned," Roscosmos spokesman Alexander Vorobyev said.
Kaleri, Skripochka and Kelly spent almost five months in orbit. They carried out several spacewalks and conducted over 40 scientific experiments.
Roscosmos said earlier on Monday that it had postponed the launch of the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft carrying members of a new crew to the ISS due to technical problems.
The Soyuz TMA-M manned spacecraft docked with the ISS on October 10 last year. It is designed to replace the outdated generation of Soyuz TMA spacecraft, which uses analog on-board systems. The new spacecraft has new in-flight measurement systems, new guidance, navigation and control equipment.