A Soyuz craft veered off its designated course yesterday while headed for its landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan but safely brought two Russian cosmonauts and Malaysia's first space traveler back to Earth, officials said.

The landing capsule carrying Russians Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov, and Malaysian Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, deviated from its intended landing site after a technical glitch during the descent, Russia's Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said.

However, it landed safely at 1036GMT - one minute ahead of schedule - and the crew was unharmed, he said.

Russian search and rescue teams quickly located the craft, which landed just under 340 km west of the designated landing site near Arkalyk, Kazakhstan, NASA reported on its website.

It said all the three crew members were feeling fine.

Russian Space Agency chief Anatoly Perminov said space officials and experts "experienced a few tense moments," but added that the crew was in good condition.

"All crew members have been recovered and they are feeling quite well," Perminov said at a news conference at Mission Control.

The spacecraft's descent deviated from the intended path apparently due to a computer glitch, and the crew were subjected to higher than normal gravity load on their descent, Lyndin said.

A similar problem occurred in May 2003 when the crew - Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin and American astronauts Kenneth Bowersox and Donald Pettit - also experienced a steep, off-course landing. It then took salvage crews several hours to locate the spacecraft.

Yurchikhin and Kotov were returning home after a six-month stint at the international space station. Sheikh had been at the orbital outpost since October 12.

Agencies

(China Daily 10/22/2007 page9)