KOROLYOV, Russia Soyuz touched down gently early Saturday in the Kazakhstan Steppes with the last team from Mir, proving again Russia's technological mastery even as it had to abandon its bastion in space for lack of funds. "Landing accomplished!" was suddenly flashed at 4:34 a.m. (0034 GMT) on the big electronic noticeboard at the Space Flight Control Center (TSOUP) in Korolyov near Moscow on which Russian and French technicians and officials had been watching operations for more than three hours.

The Soyuz TM29 vessel, which had cast off from the Mir space station at 1:17 a.m. (2117 GMT Friday) bringing back Russian cosmonauts Viktor Afanasyev and Sergei Avdeyev and their French counterpart Jean-Pierre Haignere, landed just two minutes earlier than scheduled. Waiting at the landing site 70 kilometres (45 miles) north of Arkalyk were teams of technicians, doctors, and French astronaut Claudia Andre-Dehays, Haignere's companion.

(AFP)