spacetoday.net: Soyuz landing delayed

Posted: Fri, Sep 24, 2010, 7:20 AM ET (1120 GMT)
Soyuz TMA-19 during move (NASA)

A Soyuz spacecraft failed to undock properly from the International Space Station Thursday night, forcing the spacecraft and its three-person crew to delay its return to Earth by at least 24 hours. The Soyuz TMA-18 spacecraft was to undock from the ISS Thursday night for a landing in Kazakhstan in the early morning hours Friday. However, hooks and latches holding the spacecraft to the station's Poisk module failed to disengage as planned, forcing station controllers to first delay and then scrub the landing attempt. The Soyuz is now planned to undock from the station at 10:02 pm EDT Friday (0202 GMT Saturday) and land in Kazakhstan at 1:21 am EDT (0521 GMT) Saturday, pending a resolution of the undocking problem. The Soyuz will bring back ISS crew members Alexander Skvortsov, Tracy Caldwell Dyson, and Mikhail Kornienko.