spacetoday.net: Glitch delays Soyuz arrival at ISS

Posted: Wed, Mar 26, 2014, 6:52 AM ET (1052 GMT)
Soyuz TMA-12M launch (NASA)

A Soyuz spacecraft launched from Baikonur carrying three new International Space Station crewmembers will have to wait until Thursday to dock with the ISS after a technical problem prevented a faster arrival. A Soyuz rocket carrying the Soyuz TMA-12M lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 5:17 pm EDT Tuesday (2117 GMT Tuesday, 3:17 am local time Wednesday) on what was planned to be a six-hour journey to the ISS, docking at 11:05 pm EDT (0305 GMT Wednesday). However, NASA reported about 90 minutes before the scheduled docking that a planned thruster burn by the Soyuz spacecraft needed to rendezvous with the ISS did not take place as planned. Initial reports indicate that a problem with the spacecraft's attitude control system prevented the spacecraft from being in the proper orientation for the burn, which was then automatically cancelled. The Soyuz is instead on track for a docking with the space station late Thursday, using the more traditional two-day approach to the station, while the problem remains under investigation. The Soyuz is carrying Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and American astronaut Steve Swanson, who will join the three men currently on the station.