Moscow - Two astronauts from the United States and Russia and a space tourist left the International Space Station (ISS) Wednesday morning onboard a Soyuz space capsule to return to Earth.

   The flight centre near Moscow reported that Soyuz undocked from ISS Wednesday morning and is expected to land in the Kazakhstan steppe around 0716 GMT, the Interfax news agency said.

   On board are Russian cosmonaut Yuri Lonchakov, US astronaut Micheael Fincke as well as Charles Simonyi, a space tourist also from the US.

   The return had to be delayed for one day because of flooding in the landing area.

   Lonchakov and Fincke focused on scientific experiments during their six-month stay aboard ISS.

   Simonyi, 60, arrived on ISS on March 28. It has been the second trip to the space station for the Hungarian-born software developer. The space tourist said he paid 35 million dollars for his trip, about 10 million dollars more than for his first space holiday in 2007.