Leaving the International Space Station

It was time to go home. During their eight days aboard the Earth- orbiting International Space Station (ISS), ESA Flight Engineer Claudie Haigner , Russian Commander Victor Afanasyev, and Russian Flight Engineer Konstantin Kozeev had completed several experiments and successfully delivered a new lifeboat. The lifeboat was actually the new Soyuz capsule they arrived in -- they returned home in an older Soyuz capsule that had been left six months ago. Haigner, an expert in rheumatology and neuroscience , studied the development of frog embryos under microgravity conditions. Pictured above on October 31 , their Soyuz spacecraft undocks from the ISS while dark space and a blue Earth hover in the background .