Astronauts leave space station

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ROUGH CUT - NO REPORTER NARRATION

The Soyuz TMA-22 spacecraft has left the International Space Station bringing with it three astronauts at the end of a six-month spell.

Russia's Interfax news agency says the craft is carrying Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishvin, and NASA astronaut Daniel Burbank.

The news agency said the habitable and on-board systems sections of the craft would separate from the landing capsule, after which the landing capsule would enter the dense layers of the atmosphere.

The landing capsule, using parachutes to slow its descent, was expected to come down just under 90 kilometres from Arkalyk village in Kazakhstan.

Three other crew members, one Russian, one Dutch and one American, remain on board the space station, the agency reported.