Still trying to put their disastrous International Space Station (ISS) resupply flight in April behind them, the Russian Space Agency suffered another slip-up.
According to the Associated Press, a Soyuz spacecraft docked at the ISS unexpectedly started up and slightly shifted the space lab's position in orbit. Fortunately for Roscosmos, they were able to get the spacecraft under control without putting any ISS crewmembers in danger.
Roscosmos has two Soyuz spacecraft docked at the ISS after their previous debacle forced them to delay returning certain ISS crewmembers to Earth. The space agency had lost communications early on in April's unmanned resupply mission and could not recover. They were forced to let the Progress capsule burn up on reentry into Earth's atmosphere, destroying the cargo aboard.
NASA stated in a press release on Tuesday that Terry Virts, Anton Shkaplerov and Samantha Cristoforetti were scheduled to return to Earth Thursday. Roscosmos appears ready to go forth with returning the crewmembers as scheduled, the AP noted.
The recent troubles also forced Russia to delay various ISS flights, as they are the only space agency that currently ferries astronauts to and from the space lab. They are scheduled to leave the ISS at 6:20 a.m. ET and land in Kazakhstan approximately three hours later.
Per NASA's release, Russia's next resupply mission is schedule for July 3, followed by a flight set between July 23 and 25. Roscosmos is also planning to send their Progress capsule to the ISS for two more resupply mission on Sept. 21 and Nov. 12.
NASA currently has contracts with SpaceX and Orbital Sciences to fly unmanned resupply missions to the ISS and it is unclear if their future assignments will be altered as well.
