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Manned mission to Int'l Space Station to be delayed due to cargo spacecraft's failure

Xinhua, May 7, 2015 Adjust font size:

Russian federal space agency Roscosmos said Wednesday that the upcoming manned mission to the International Space Station (ISS) would be re-scheduled due to the recent failure of the Progress M-27M cargo craft.

"The program of the next expedition to the ISS on May 26 may be adjusted due to possible postponements of the launch dates of cargo spacecraft and amendments to the ISS flight program," Roscosmos' Mission Control Center said in a statement.

The new ISS crew has been preparing for its mission at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center located in the Star City east of Moscow, the Russian capital.

The crew members, consisting of Oleg Kononenko from Russia, Yui Kimiya from Japan, and Kjell Lindgren from the United States, are undergoing examination training on the simulator of the Russian segment of the ISS.

The Progress M-27M cargo ship, which carried about 2.5 metric tons of cargo, including fuel, oxygen, food and scientific equipment, was launched by a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on April 28 and was planned to dock with the International Space Station six hours after the blast-off. The mission, however, failed as the spacecraft went into an uncontrolled spin in space and eventually kept dropping in orbit.

According to Roscosmos, the uncontrolled Progress is expected to enter atmosphere and perish Friday.

A special commission has been set up to investigate the causes of the incident and a report about the findings is expected by the end of May, according to Roscosmos head Igor Komarov. Endite