Re-Docking of Soyuz Spaceship Postponed
The re-docking of the Soyuz spaceship from one ISS module to another, which had been earlier scheduled overnight from May 6 to May 7, has been indefinitely postponed, Russian Space Control Centre in the Moscow countryside told TASS on Monday [5 May].
The ISS-17 crewmen – Russian cosmonauts Sergey Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, were to have disconnected the Soyuz from the "Pirs" transition module and dock it to "Zorya" cargo module so as to vacate the docking module for a space walk scheduled for the beginning of July, spokesman for Space Control Valeriy Lyndin told TASS. If during a space walk the Soyuz remains docked with the Pirs module problems arise in the event of emergency evacuation of the space crew in an emergency situation, Lyndin said.
Since the Soyuz performs the function of "a safety raft" all the three cosmonauts, including the two Russian cosmonauts and their US colleague Garrett Reisman, should have a free access to the spaceship. But, if the spaceship is docked with the transition module, from which the cosmonauts walk into space, one of the ISS cosmonauts should have moved on board the Soyuz beforehand and wait there while his colleagues are making a space walk. Usually, it is a third crew member who guarantees safety of the other two cosmonauts who work outside.
The spokesman specified that the re-docking of the Soyuz was postponed at a persistent request made by the US colleagues and because the causes of an unexpected ballistic descent of the previous space crew ISS- 16 on April 19 were not established yet. Until the causes of the previous ballistic descent are established and until measures are taken to eliminate defects, that provoked ballistic descent, on board the Soyuz-TMA- 12 spaceship that remains docked with the ISS at present, NASA does not think it worthwhile using this spaceship for another descent of the ISS crew, the spokesman told TASS.
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Image Caption: Cosmonaut Oleg D. Kononenko, Expedition 17 flight engineer representing Russia’s Federal Space Agency, participates in an Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit fit check in the Space Station Airlock Test Article (SSATA) in the Crew Systems Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center. Cosmonaut Sergei A. Volkov, commander representing Russia’s Federal Space Agency, assisted Kononenko. Image credit: NASA
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