The 10th expedition crew on the International Space Station (ISS) are making final preparations for their flight to Earth Sunday at the end of their 192-day mission on the orbiting laboratory, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and US astronaut Leroy Chiao, as well as European Space Agency astronaut Roberto Vittori,who has spent 10 days as a visiting guest on the ISS conducting scientific experiments, will open the Soyuz TMA-5 spaceship at 18:00 Moscow time (1400 GMT) and check the operation of the board systems and test the communications system.

The 11th crew to the ISS, Russian Sergei Krikalev and American John Phillips along with Vittori, arrived at the station a week ago to replace Sharipov and Chiao, who have been working on the station since October.

Sharipov and Chiao have officially given their watch to Krikalev and Phillips and will continue to brief them on the conditions of the station's systems, said Viktor Blagov, senior expert at Russia's space rocket corporation Energia.

The Soyuz is expected to undock from the ISS at 22:41 Moscow time (1841 GMT) and land early Monday morning in the northern steppes of Kazakhstan, where Russian helicopters and planes, alongwith a US medical team, are on call for the search operation.

Russia's space program has been the lifeline of the ISS since the suspension of US shuttle flights after US shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it returned to Earth on Feb. 1, 2003.

The US space agency NASA is expected to resume shuttle flights as early as May 15.