Soyuz spacecraft undocks from International Space Station

Three station fliers moved back aboard their Soyuz TMA-09M ferry craft Sunday and undocked from the International Space Station, setting the stage for a fiery plunge to Earth and a landing on the frigid steppe of Kazakhstan to close out a 166-day stay in space.

Packed safely away in the cramped Soyuz spacecraft was an Olympic torch that was launched last Wednesday with another three-person crew and carried outside the station Saturday for a dramatic spacewalk photo op. Olympic organizers plan to use the torch in the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.

With commander Fyodor Yurchikhin at the controls, flanked on the left by European Space Agency flight engineer Luca Parmitano and on the right by NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, the Soyuz undocked from the aft port of the station's Zvezda command mode at 6:26 p.m. EST.

"We are feeling the separation," Yurchikhin radioed as springs in the docking mechanism pushed the Soyuz away.

"Have a good flight," someone called.

"Thank you, thank you all."

Live television views from the departing Soyuz showed the International Space Station and the limb of the Earth as the two spacecraft passed 260 miles above western Asia.

After moving about 12 miles away from the lab complex, Yurchikhin planned to oversee a four-minute 45-second rocket firing starting at 8:55 p.m., slowing the craft by about 286 mph, just enough to drop the far side of its orbit deep into the atmosphere.

About three minutes before atmospheric entry at 9:26 p.m., the three modules making up the Soyuz spacecraft were expected to separate with the central crew module lining up heat shield first as the crew prepares for the onset of gravity after five-and-a-half-months in the microgravity environment of space.

The crew module's braking parachutes were expected to deploy at an altitude of about 6.6 miles, 14 minutes or so before a jarring rocket-assisted touchdown around 9:49 p.m. to close out a flight spanning 2,656 orbits and 70.3 million miles since launch on May 28.

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Soyuz spacecraft undocks from International Space Station