Three crewmen disengaged their capsule from the International Space Station and headed for a landing in Kazakhstan's steppes Tuesday, with Russian experts determined they will touch down softly on target.

Russian Yuri Malenchenko, American Edward Lu and Pedro Duque of Spain were due to touch down in their Soyuz TMA-2 capsule at about 5:40 a.m. Moscow time (9:40 p.m. EST Monday). Technicians say they have taken action to guard against the rough "ballistic" landing endured by the last team to return from the ISS.

"The space capsule has just separated from the International Space Station," Colonel Mikhail Polukhin, coordinator of the Russian operation to recover the capsule, said in the Kazakh capital Astana before heading for the landing site.

General Vladimir Popov, commander of Russian space rescuers, said: "What happened last time may occur once in 1,000 space flights." He was speaking by satellite telephone from their base in Arkalyk -- 200 miles southwest of the Kazakh capital Astana.

This time, rescuers have been put on alert in the Kazakh industrial city of Karaganda and at the Baikonur cosmodrome, the Soviet-era facility where most Russian launches take place.

"We are completely sure everything will work fine...and we are monitoring weather conditions at the landing site to avoid contingencies," Popov said.

On May 4, a similar Soyuz capsule carrying U.S. astronauts Kenneth Bowersox and Donald Pettit and Russian Nikolai Budarin landed hundreds of kilometers off target in the steppe due to a technical glitch that caused early re-entry.

Colonel Mikhail Polukhin, in charge of Tuesday's rescue operation, said teams had at their disposal 11 helicopters, three aircraft and six all-terrain vehicles.

A U.S. Air Force C-17 transport jet, equipped with a hospital, landed in Astana to back up the rescuers.

Malenchenko and Lu, who have spent six months at the $95 billion, 16-nation ISS, and Duque who has spent a week aboard conducting experiments, will be equipped this time with a satellite phone and global positioning system.

Russian space officials say another Soyuz ship that sent Duque plus U.S. astronaut Michael Foale and Russian Alexander Kaleri on the latest mission to the ISS this month, has undergone several improvements. Foale and Kaleri are to remain on board for six months.

Russia has assumed responsibility for sending men and supplies to the ISS since the U.S. Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated on re-entry in February, killing seven astronauts on board. The U.S. space agency NASA says three remaining shuttles are unlikely to fly again before September 2004.

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