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| New space crew fight a thruster problem en route to space station. (NASA) |
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- An issue with a spacecraft thruster firing has kept an American and two Russians from docking to the International Space Station on Wednesday as planned.
NASA astronaut Steven Swanson and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsuv and Oleg Artemyev aboard a Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft were supposed to dock with their new home in space just six hours after launch.
They will now stay aloft on orbit for another two days before attempting a docking to the station the March 28.
"Everything is scrapped! We are done for the day," Russian mission control exclaimed to the crew of three aboard the space station prior to the start of their sleep. "It's a chaotic situation now."
NASA has now said that docking will now take place at 7:58 p.m. EDT, on Thursday.
Ninety minutes later, the two space crews will open the hatches and shake hands.
"We don't exactly know what has happened," Moscow radioed the Soyuz crew an hour later. "You will have to be in flight for two days."
What Moscow does know is as the Soyuz began it's DV3 (Delta/Velocity #3) burn maneuver at 7:48 p.m., Russian Mission Control received a failure message. The burn would have increased it's speed by 10.1 meters per second.
Another burn planned for a half-hour later never occurred.
A two day docking schedule had been the normal routine by both NASA space shuttles and Russian Soyuz vehicles until last year. This flight would have been only the fifth planned fast-trek docking to the station.
NASA controllers are now working with Moscow's flight control team to share several ground stations across the Western Hemisphere to allow the Soyuz crew to communicate with Moscow.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science and technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
NASA astronaut Steven Swanson and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsuv and Oleg Artemyev aboard a Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft were supposed to dock with their new home in space just six hours after launch.
They will now stay aloft on orbit for another two days before attempting a docking to the station the March 28.
"Everything is scrapped! We are done for the day," Russian mission control exclaimed to the crew of three aboard the space station prior to the start of their sleep. "It's a chaotic situation now."
NASA has now said that docking will now take place at 7:58 p.m. EDT, on Thursday.
Ninety minutes later, the two space crews will open the hatches and shake hands.
"We don't exactly know what has happened," Moscow radioed the Soyuz crew an hour later. "You will have to be in flight for two days."
What Moscow does know is as the Soyuz began it's DV3 (Delta/Velocity #3) burn maneuver at 7:48 p.m., Russian Mission Control received a failure message. The burn would have increased it's speed by 10.1 meters per second.
Another burn planned for a half-hour later never occurred.
A two day docking schedule had been the normal routine by both NASA space shuttles and Russian Soyuz vehicles until last year. This flight would have been only the fifth planned fast-trek docking to the station.
NASA controllers are now working with Moscow's flight control team to share several ground stations across the Western Hemisphere to allow the Soyuz crew to communicate with Moscow.
(Charles Atkeison reports on aerospace, science and technology. Follow his updates via Twitter @AbsolutSpaceGuy.)
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