Soyuz return from ISS set for April 27

MOSCOW, March 29 (UPI) -- Russia's space agency Roscosmos says the Soyuz TMA-22 manned spacecraft from the International Space Station will return to Earth April 27.

"We have agreed (on) the landing date with our foreign partners in ISS project. It will be April 27," Alexei Krasnov, head of manned flight programs at Roscosmos, told RIA Novosti.

Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin, with NASA astronaut Dan Burbank, had been scheduled to return to Earth March 16 on the Soyuz but a delay in the launch of the Soyuz-TMA-04M with the next ISS expedition affected the return plans, officials said.

The next expedition crew will be Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin and NASA astronaut Joseph Acaba, with their launch scheduled for May 15.

The new crew will join NASA astronaut Don Pettit, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers, who arrived at the ISS in December, and will spend 147 days aboard the orbital station.