Source: Xinhua
04-05-2009 15:24
Special Report: Tech MaxMOSCOW, April 3 (Xinhua) -- The landing of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, with two astronauts and a space tourist aboard, has been postponed by one day to April 8, local media reported on Friday.
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| Soyuz Spacecraft (File photo) |
"The landing has been rescheduled for April 8 at 11:00 Moscow time (0700 GMT), to the north-east of Dzheskazgan (in Kazakhstan)," the RIA Novosti reported, citing a spokesman for the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
Hungarian-born U.S. businessman Charles Simonyi, along with the crew of the 18th ISS expedition -- U.S. astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian flight engineer Yury Lonchakov, were originally scheduled to land on Earth in a capsule from the Soyuz TMA-13 spaceship on April 7.
The delay was caused by floods at the planned landing site in Kazakhstan, RIA Novosti said.
"Due to severe flooding in north Kazakhstan, the landing commission decided to postpone the landing until April 8, and move the landing site to a different location," Andrei Pryanishnikov, a spokesman for Russia's air navigation service, said.
A Soyuz TMA-14 spaceship carrying space tourist Simonyi, Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and NASA astronaut Michael Barratt, docked with the ISS at 16:05 Moscow time (1305 GMT) on March 28.
Padalka and Barratt, crew of the 19th expedition, will remain at the ISS for six months.
The space station's permanent crew will be increased to six by the end of May.
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