Japanese Billionaire Space Tourists Undocks From ISS Aboard Soyuz MS-20 [WATCH]

The Russian Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft carrying two Japanese tourists, has separated from the International Space Station (ISS) to begin its return voyage to Earth. The spacecraft's engines will be turned on in a few hours to slow it down and take it out of orbit.

The landing will take place at 03.13 GMT, 148 kilometers southeast of Jezkazgan, Kazakhstan. The live feed of the crew of the Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft saying their goodbyes and closing the hatch, followed by the decoupling of the ISS and the return of the expedition members to Earth, is brought to you by NASA (live feed embedded below this page).

Japanese Space Visitors Leave International Space Station After 12 Days

After launching on the Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, astronaut Alexandr Misurkin and two space tourists - Japanese businessman Yusaku Maezawa and his partner Yozo Hirano - spent 12 days aboard the International Space Station.

Space.com said Maezawa and Hirano became the first visitors to visit the space station on a Soyuz-class ship in 12 years. Although the actual sum paid by Maezawa is unknown, experts in the space tourism industry believe that a flight of this nature costs roughly $50 million.

Misurkin's journey was his third in orbit, but it was the first for Maezawa and Hirano, who planned their trip through the Virginia firm Space Adventures. Both Maezawa's and Hirano's tickets were paid for by Maezawa.

Hirano and Maezawa have been recording their off-Earth experience and doing health and performance studies, contributing to the little collection of knowledge accessible for non-professional astronauts.

Maezawa also intends to go around the moon in SpaceX's Starship spacecraft. That mission is not planned to launch until 2023 (per Science Times).

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Space Adventures

It's the first ISS expedition arranged by Space Adventures since 2009. Between 2001 and 2009, the firm aided in transporting seven paying clients to the orbiting lab on eight occasions.

"Once you are in space, you realize how much it is worth it by having this amazing experience," Maezawa told The Associated Press (via ABC News).

When asked about allegations that he spent more than $80 million for a 12-day mission, Maezawa said he couldn't reveal the contract number but claimed he paid "very nearly" that much.

In October, Russian actress Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko spent 12 days aboard the station making the world's first movie in space as part of a project funded by Russia's space organization Roscosmos to help burnish the country's space glories.

Maezawa built his fortune in the retail fashion industry by founding Zozotown, Japan's largest online fashion mall. His net worth was estimated to be $1.9 billion by Forbes magazine.

NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and Mark Vande Hei, and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer, are staying behind aboard the station.