MOSCOW -- A Soyuz space capsule carrying a cosmonaut and two Russian filmmakers has separated from the International Space Station and is heading for the Earth.

       The separation took place on schedule at 0115 GMT Sunday with Oleg Novitskiy, Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko aboard for a descent of about 3 1/2 hours.

       Actress Peresild and film director Shipenko rocketed to the space station on Oct. 5 for a 12-day stint on the station to film segments of a movie titled “Challenge,” in which a surgeon played by Peresild rushes to the space station to save a crew member who needs an urgent operation in orbit. Novitskiy, who spent more than six months aboard the space station, plays the ailing cosmonaut in the movie.

       The space capsule is to land in the steppes of Kazakhstan.

       Seven astronauts remain aboard the space station: Russia's Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov; Americans Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur; Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency; and Japan's Aki Hoshide.