ISS crew rests before return to Earth

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MOSCOW, June 30 (UPI) -- The crew of the International Space Station is having a day of rest Saturday before three of them return to Earth, officials said.

The crew of six -- Russians Oleg Kononenko, Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin, Americans Donald Pettit and Joseph Acaba and Dutchman Andre Kuipers -- worked overnight until 5:30 a.m. Saturday, when they were told to take a rest, ITAR-Tass reported.

"Today, the united crew will sleep till 21:00 Moscow time," a source at the Mission Control Center based near Moscow told ITAR-Tass.

After resting up, former ISS commander Kononenko, Pettit and Kuipers will return to Earth Sunday aboard the Soyuz TMA-03M.

The three departing crew members are scheduled to leave the ISS Sunday at 8:48 a.m. Moscow time and land on Earth at 12:15 p.m. Moscow time, the Mission Control Center said. They will be bringing back medico-biological experiment samples kept in a refrigerator.