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Soyuz spaceship docking delay due to "orientation" issue

(Xinhua)    18:17, March 26, 2014
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The postponed docking of a Russian-manned spaceship at the International Space Station (ISS) was caused by an orientation problem, the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said Wednesday.

"The task of docking the spaceship with the ISS will be achieved under a two-day approach program. The decision results from glitches in the spaceship's orientation system," Roscosmos head Oleg Ostapenko told reporters.

Experts will make adjustments to the program and the next docking attempt is scheduled for Friday.

The Soyuz TMA-12M manned spaceship carrying three crew members -- Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev, and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson -- blasted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at 1:17 a.m. Moscow time on Wednesday (2117 GMT Tuesday), and was scheduled to dock with the ISS the same day at 7:04 a.m. Moscow time (0304 GMT Wednesday).

The trio will be joining the three crew members already living on the station -- Koichi Wakata of Japan, American Rick Mastracchio and Russian Mikhail Tyurin.

According to Ostapenko, the living environment in the spaceship is normal and the crew is fine.

"The crew members have taken off spacesuits and continue the flight in a planned mode," Ostapenko added.

(Editor:WangXin、Yao Chun)

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