Three-man crew leaves space station

ASTANA, Kazakhstan -- A Russian space capsule carrying two cosmonauts and Belgium's first astronaut separated from the international space station today and headed for Earth.

The Soyuz capsule separated from the space station automatically at 3:44 p.m. EST Saturday, according to a spokesman at Russian mission control in Korolyov, outside Moscow.

The crew of Capt. Sergei Zaletin, Belgian first flight engineer Frank de Winne of the European Space Agency, and second flight engineer Yuri Lonchakov, were to land about four hours later in the steppes of Kazakhstan.

They had taken off on Oct. 29 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the former Central Asian republic, which Russia uses for its manned space flights.

Their trip to Earth won't take as long as their two-day journey to the space station, but won't be as comfortable. They were traveling in a standard Soyuz space capsule, but went up in a Soyuz TMA-1, which features an improved control system and more comfortable seats that can accommodate larger crew members.

The mission comes amid concern that Russia may reduce its contribution to the international space station in connection with the U.S. decision to cut funding for the project.

Russia must provide at least four Progress cargo ships and two Soyuz crew capsules for the station every year, but the government funds allocated for next year are only enough for two cargo ships, Russia's space agency said last month.

Funding problems have dogged the Russian space program in the decade since the collapse of the Soviet Union and interfered with its contributions to the 16-nation station. The station's crew module went into orbit in 2000 after more than two years of delay caused by Russian funding shortages.

A Soyuz crew capsule docks with the ISS about twice a year to bring a replacement crew and stays hooked up to the station as a rescue vehicle. The U.S. space agency NASA shelved its earlier plan to build its own lifeboat for the ISS because of funding cuts, limiting the station's permanent crew to three, the number of seats in the Soyuz, instead of six planned earlier.

While the Soyuz capsule was heading back to Earth, NASA was preparing for the Monday blastoff of the space shuttle Endeavour on a mission to deliver a fresh crew and another building block for the station.