{"id":15221,"date":"2016-09-17T20:20:18","date_gmt":"2016-09-17T12:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/russians-delay-next-crew-launch-to-station\/"},"modified":"2016-09-17T20:20:18","modified_gmt":"2016-09-17T12:20:18","slug":"russians-delay-next-crew-launch-to-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/russians-delay-next-crew-launch-to-station\/","title":{"rendered":"Russians delay next crew launch to station"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The
The Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft is prepared for encapsulation inside the Soyuz rocket\u2019s nose fairing in this Sept. 15 photo. Credit: NASA\/Victor Zelentsov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The next launch of a Soyuz spacecraft carrying three space station fliers has been delayed indefinitely after testing at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan revealed an unspecified technical problem, the Russian space agency announced Saturday.<\/p>\n

Soyuz MS-02 commander Sergey Ryzhikov, flight engineer Andrey Borisenko and NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough had been scheduled for launch from Baikonur on Sept. 23. After a two-day rendezvous, the spacecraft was expected to dock at the International Space Station on Sept. 25.<\/p>\n

But in a one-sentence announcement on its web page early Saturday, Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, said the launch had been delayed \u201cfor technical reasons after tests at the Baikonur Space Center.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is not yet know how long the Soyuz might be grounded or what impact the delay might have on downstream flights.<\/p>\n

\"NASA
NASA astronaut Shane Kimgrough, and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko visit Red Square in Moscow. Credit: NASA\/Bill Ingalls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The space station is currently staffed by just three crew members: Soyuz MS-01 commander Anatoly Ivanishin, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, who were launched to the outpost July 6. They\u2019ve had the station to themselves since Sept. 6 when Soyuz TMA-20M commander Alexey Ovchinin, flight engineer Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronaut Jeff Williams returned to Earth.<\/p>\n

The current flight plan calls for Ivanishin, Rubins and Takuya to return to Earth Oct. 30, assuming Kimbrough\u2019s crew gets there in time. Their replacements \u2014 Soyuz MS-03 commander Oleg Novitskiy, European Space Agency flight engineer Thomas Pesquet and NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson \u2014 are scheduled for launch Nov. 15.<\/p>\n

NASA managers are awaiting details from the Russians on what might be needed to fix the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft and when it might be ready for launch. Possible impacts on downstream flights are not yet known.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft is prepared for encapsulation inside the Soyuz rocket\u2019s nose fairing in this Sept. 15 photo. Credit: NASA\/Victor Zelentsov The next launch of a Soyuz spacecraft carrying three space station fliers has been delayed indefinitely after testing at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan revealed an unspecified technical problem, the Russian space agency […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3345,1601,3346,3292,1545,717,908,3363],"class_list":["post-15221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-andrey-borisenko","tag-baikonur-cosmodrome","tag-expedition-49","tag-expedition-50","tag-human-spaceflight","tag-international-space-station","tag-sergey-ryzhikov","tag-shane-kimbrough"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15221"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}