Re-Docking of Russian Spacecraft With Iss Cancelled – Source

MOSCOW. May 4 (Interfax) – Russian Flight Control in Korolyov outside Moscow has cancelled the transfer of the spacecraft Soyuz TMA-12 from the Pirs docking compartment to the Zarya module of the International Space Station (ISS) scheduled for May 6, a well informed source in the space industry told Interfax.

“Nobody is going to assume responsibility for permitting the re- docking of Soyuz before the commission looking into the causes for the reentry of the previous spacecraft completes its work,” the source said.

The transfer of Soyuz implied by the Russian program of the ISS flight should have created more convenient conditions for the spacewalk of Russian cosmonauts in July, the source said.

“The re-docking was cancelled primarily out of concern about the safety of the crew, the implementation of the flight program takes a backseat,” the source said.

Soyuz, with three crewmembers aboard, was supposed to undock from Pirs and, after a short flight, dock with another compartment. “If anything was to go wrong and the spacecraft failed to dock, it would have to make an emergency landing. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that a descent with additional overloads could be avoided in this case,” the source said.

Interfax has yet to obtain comments on the issue from flight control officials.

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