International Space Station crew’s return to Earth postponed

Excerpt from report by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS

Moscow, 25 March: The return to Earth of the International Space Station expedition 8 crew has been put back by 24 hours, an official spokesman for Mission Control Centre, Valeriy Lyndin, told ITAR- TASS. “Russia’s Aleksandr Kaleri and NASA’s Michael Foale, who have been working in orbit since October, have been told that their landing has been rescheduled from 29 to 30 April,” he said.

A Federal Space Agency spokesman, Sergey Gorbunov, confirmed to ITAR-TASS that “the cosmonauts will most likely return on 30 April”. He did point out, however, that “the official decision on landing times will be taken in the very near future”.

“The lift-off date for a Soyuz [booster rocket] with expedition 9 remains unchanged, 19 April,” he said.

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