Russian Soyuz Spacecraft Malfunction Delays 3-Man Crew's Space Station Arrival

[Buster's Uncle]

Russian Soyuz Spacecraft Malfunction Delays 3-Man Crew's Space Station Arrival
SPACE.com
by Tariq Malik, Managing Editor  17 hours ago



A Russian Soyuz rocket launches a Soyuz TMA-12M capsule carrying NASA astronaut Steve Swanson and cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev toward the International Space Station on March 25, 2014 EDT from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan



A Russian Soyuz spacecraft suffered an apparent malfunction in orbit late Tuesday (March 25), forcing the its three-man crew to circle the Earth two extra days before reaching the International Space Station as planned, NASA officials say.

The Soyuz TMA-12M space capsule launched into space Tuesday carrying an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts on what was expected to be a standard six-hour trip to the International Space Station. But a malfunction on the Soyuz spacecraft prevented a critical engine burn to keep the capsule on course for its planned orbital arrival Tuesday night. 

Riding aboard the Soyuz are NASA astronaut Steve Swanson and cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev. The U.S.-Russian crew will now arrive at the station on Thursday evening (March 27), NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said in an update.

"The crew is fine, but the ground teams are taking a look at what exactly happened aboard the Soyuz and what caused that [engine] burn to be skipped," Byerly said during NASA's televised coverage.

Russian Soyuz engineers are unsure if a software glitch or a mechanical malfunction caused the problem, Byerly said.



Expedition 39 Soyuz Commander Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, bottom, Flight Engineer Steve Swanson of NASA, middle, and Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos, wave farewell prior to boarding


The Soyuz capsule launched into orbit atop a Russian-built Soyuz rocket from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:17 p.m. EDT (2117 March 26 GMT). Its crew planned to join three other crewmates already aboard the station with docking at 11:05 p.m. EDT (0305 March 26 GMT)

Now, Swanson and his crewmates must wait until Thursday at 7:58 p.m. EDT (2358 GMT) to link up with the International Space Station, Byerly said, adding that the exact time of the docking could change.

"They have supplies to keep them in orbit for many, many days," Byerly said of the three space travelers.

Russia's Soyuz spacecraft originally flew on two-day rendezvous flights to the space station similar to the backup trajectory the current Soyuz mission is forced to fly now. It is a two-day trip that includes 32 orbits of Earth in order to catch up with the space station. The last two-day Soyuz trip before this mission was in December 2012.

Russia's Federal Space Agency began flying shorter, six-hour trips to the space station with unmanned cargo ships in 2012. The first crewed single-day trips to station on Soyuz vehicles launched in 2013.

A standard six-hour trip to the International Space Station includes four orbits of the Earth and requires four major engine burn maneuvers, performed automatically by the spacecraft, in order to reach the International Space Station.

Byerly said the Soyuz TMA-12M's flight computer failed to perform the third maneuver in the flight sequence slated for 7:48 p.m. EDT (2348 GMT).

"Right now we don't understand exactly what happened, so we'll analyze and review all the telemetry of it," a Russian flight controller radioed the Soyuz crew, according to a audio translation.

An initial look at conversations between mission flight controllers in Moscow and Houston suggests, that the problem may beem caused by the Soyuz not being in the proper orientation for the planned engine burn, NASA officials wrote in a status update.

Russia's three-person Soyuz spacecraft are currently the only vehicles capable of ferrying astronaut and cosmonaut crews to and from the International Space Station. NASA retired its space shuttle fleet in 2011, and is dependent on Russian Soyuz vehicles to fly American astronauts to the station and back. The U.S. space agency plans to fly American astronauts on commercial U.S. spacecraft beginning in 2017.

Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev are due to spend nearly six months in space during their current mission, which will bridge the space station's Expedition 39 and 40 crews. The trio will join Expedition 29's Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin already aboard the station, then stay on to serve as the outpost's Expedition 40 crew.


http://news.yahoo.com/russian-soyuz-spacecraft-malfunction-delays-3-man-crews-025015690.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Soyuz Rocket Launches New US-Russian Crew Toward Space Station
SPACE.com
by Miriam Kramer, Staff Writer  23 hours ago



The latest three spaceflyers launched to the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 25, 2014.



A Russian Soyuz rocket launched an international trio of crewmembers to the International Space Station today (March 25), sending them into space for a 5.5-month stint on the orbiting laboratory.

The rocket launched a Soyuz capsule housing NASA's Steve Swanson and cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev at 5:17 p.m. EDT (2117 March 26 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan, where the local time was 3:17 a.m. Wednesday. The three crewmembers are scheduled to dock with the space station at 11:04 p.m. EDT (0304 March 26 GMT), and you can watch the Soyuz's arrival live on Space.com via NASA TV starting at 10:30 p.m. EDT (0230 March 26 GMT).

Liftoff of Steve Swanson, Oleg Artemyev and Alexander Skvortsov on a six-hour journey to the International Space Station," NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said during launch. "The Soyuz lights up the night sky there at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan." [See photos of the US-Russian crew's Soyuz launch]

In keeping with tradition, ground controllers piped upbeat rock and country music into the Soyuz spacecraft for the three crewmembers before launch. Skvortsov also hung a small duck talisman nicknamed "Quack" in the crew capsule before liftoff. The duck toy was given to him by his daughter, according to Byerly.

Swanson, Artemyev and Skvortsov will join NASA's Rick Mastracchio, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, rounding out the station's Expedition 39 crew. The three newest residents of the space station are expected to float through the hatch about two hours after they dock to the outpost.

While the relationship between the United States and Russian governments has been tense due to Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian region of Crimea, the space station launch was unaffected by the recent crisis, NASA officials have said.



Expedition 39 crew sits inside the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft prior to launching to the International Space Station on March 25, 2014. The stuffed toy duck at left will serve as an indicator of reaching orbit, when it begins to float in zero-g.


Tuesday's launch marked Swanson's third trip to space. He is the veteran of two space shuttle missions, but this will be his first long-duration stay in orbit. Swanson and the other space station astronauts have some fun plans for their free time onboard the space station.

"For my free time … the first thing is probably [to] look out the window at our beautiful planet," Swanson said during a prelaunch news conference. "We do plan on doing a few other fun things onboard. We're going to watch the World Cup and it should be a good game."

Skvortsov is also a veteran spaceflyer. The cosmonaut stayed onboard the space station in 2010, racking up 176 days in space.

Artemyev is making his first flight to space after participating in the Mars 500 mock Mars mission — an exercise designed to place volunteers in isolation on Earth for more than a year to simulate a mission to the Red Planet.

At the moment, Soyuz spacecraft are the only vehicles that transport NASA astronauts to the space station. NASA officials hope to start using private spaceships to ferry astronauts to and from orbit by 2017.

It's a busy week at the space station. The private spaceflight company SpaceX is planning to launch their third official resupply mission to the orbiting outpost using their Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule on Sunday (March 30).


http://news.yahoo.com/soyuz-rocket-launches-us-russian-crew-toward-space-212914413.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Soyuz Capsule with 3-Man Crew Taking Long Road to Space Station After Delay
SPACE.com
by Miriam Kramer, Staff Writer  4 hours ago



A Russian Soyuz rocket launches a Soyuz TMA-12M capsule carrying NASA astronaut Steve Swanson and cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev toward the International Space Station on March 25, 2014 EDT from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan



An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts are taking the long way to the International Space Station after their Soyuz spacecraft hit a snag after launching into orbit Tuesday (March 25).

NASA astronaut Steve Swanson and cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev, will now arrive at the space station Thursday (March 27) at 7:58 p.m. EDT (2258 GMT). The crew is in no danger, and they have reported that they are feeling great, NASA spokeswoman Brandi Dean said during a webcast today. NASA and Russian ground controllers are still investigating the exact cause of the docking delay.

The Soyuz TMA-12M capsule launched into space atop a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan at 5:17 p.m. EDT (2117 March 26 GMT) on Tuesday. While the Soyuz TMA-12M vehicle was scheduled to dock with the space laboratory about six hours after launch, the spacecraft missed an automatic engine burn, preventing it from making the expedited docking. According to preliminary reports, officials think the burn was skipped because the Soyuz vehicle wasn't in the correct orientation, or attitude, at the time.

"Based on what we're hearing from our Russian colleagues, it looks like that burn did not execute because they weren't able through their normal systems checks to confirm the attitude of the vehicle was in its proper condition," Kenny Todd, mission operations integration manager for the space station, said during a NASA TV webcast. "So, not being able to confirm that, the burn did not automatically execute."

The two-day docking procedure was standard operation for crewed Soyuz launches until recently. Officials have only been using the expedited six-hour docking since 2013. Unmanned Russian cargo ships have been flying single-day trips to the station since 2012.



Expedition 39 Soyuz Commander Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, bottom, Flight Engineer Steve Swanson of NASA, middle, and Flight Engineer Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos, wave farewell prior to boarding


For a standard six-hour trip to the station, a Soyuz needs to make four orbits of Earth and perform four major engine burns, automatically initiated by the spacecraft's computer. The Soyuz TMA-12M transporting Swanson and his crewmates did not perform the third flight maneuver slated for 7:48 p.m. EDT (2348 GMT) Tuesday, NASA spokesman Josh Byerly said during a NASA TV webcast on March 25.

The Soyuz spacecraft now needs to make 34 orbits of Earth before arriving at the station. The first couple of burns for the new 34-orbit rendezvous plan have already been accomplished successfully, so the spacecraft is working well, Todd said.

Since the end of NASA's space shuttle program, the space agency has relied on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to transport astronauts into orbit. By 2017, NASA officials plan to start using private U.S. spaceships to ferry crews to and from space.

Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev are scheduled to live and work on the space station for close to six months as part of the Expedition 39 and 40 crews. Once on the orbiting laboratory, they will join NASA's Rick Mastracchio, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata and cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin.

The delayed arrival of the Soyuz will not affect the planned launch of an unmanned cargo mission to the station scheduled for Sunday (March 30), NASA officials said today. The private spaceflight company SpaceX will launch its third resupply mission to the orbiting outpost using its Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket.


http://news.yahoo.com/soyuz-capsule-3-man-crew-taking-long-road-165342543.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Space station arrival delayed for US-Russian crew
Associated Press
By NATALIYA VASILYEVA  7 hours ago






MOSCOW (AP) — A software glitch on a Russian spacecraft heading to the International Space Station has delayed the arrival of three astronauts, including an American. NASA said the crew was in no danger, and the U.S.-Russia space partnership was strong despite tensions over Ukraine.

The Soyuz spacecraft carrying Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and NASA's Steve Swanson blasted off successfully early Wednesday and was scheduled to dock six hours later. But because of the glitch, the arrival was pushed back until late Thursday.

Since the 2011 retirement of the U.S. space shuttle fleet, NASA has depended on the Russian spacecraft to ferry crews to the orbiting outpost and is paying Russia nearly $71 million per seat. This cooperation has continued despite tensions over Russia's annexation of Crimea and U.S. calls for harsher sanctions on Russia.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden repeatedly has said that the conflict in Ukraine would have no effect on the U.S.-Russian partnership. As recently as Tuesday he reiterated on his blog that while NASA continues to cooperate successfully with Russia, it wants to get its own capacity to launch crews as quickly as possible. NASA is trying to speed up private American companies' efforts to launch crews into orbit, but it needs extra funding.

The Soyuz booster rocket lifted off as scheduled at 3:17 a.m. local time Wednesday (2117 GMT Tuesday) from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It entered a designated orbit about 10 minutes after the launch and was expected to reach the space station in six hours. All onboard systems were working flawlessly, and the crew was feeling fine.

NASA and Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, said shortly before the planned docking that the arrival had been delayed after a 24-second engine burn that was necessary to adjust the Soyuz spacecraft's orbiting path "did not occur as planned."



In this photo taken with a fisheye lens and long exposure, the Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-12M space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS) blasts off over an antenna at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, March 26, 2014. The Russian rocket carries U.S. astronaut Steven Swanson, Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)


The crew is in no danger, but will have to wait until Thursday for the Soyuz TMA-12M to arrive and dock at the space station, NASA said. The arrival is now scheduled for 7:58 p.m. EDT (2358 GMT) Thursday.

Roscosmos chief Oleg Ostapenko said on Wednesday that the glitch occurred because of a failure of the ship's orientation system. The crew is in good spirits and they have taken off their space suits to prepare for the long flight, Ostapenko said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies.

The Russian official said the crew is now working to adjust the spacecraft to the correct orbit for the Thursday docking.

Until last year, Russian spacecraft used to routinely travel two days to reach the orbiting laboratory. Wednesday would have been only the fifth time that a crew would have taken the six-hour "fast-track" route to the station.


http://news.yahoo.com/space-station-arrival-delayed-us-russian-crew-133209085.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Technical hitch delays US-Russia crew's ISS docking
AFP
By Stuart WILLIAMS  5 hours ago



Crew members of a mission to the International Space Station (ISS), (from L) US astronaut Steven Swanson, Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev, pictured in Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on March 26, 2014 (AFP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)



Moscow (AFP) - A US-Russian three-man crew Wednesday faced an unprecedented two-day delay in their docking with the International Space Station (ISS) after their Russian Soyuz spacecraft suffered a technical glitch on its approach in orbit.

The two Russian cosmonauts and American astronaut were to have docked with the ISS early Wednesday, just six hours after launch from Kazakhstan, but the problem means that the docking is now only planned on Friday.

The trio will now orbit the Earth 34 times before their rendezvous with the international space laboratory, instead of the fast track route of four orbits originally envisaged.

US-Russia space cooperation has continued undimmed despite the diplomatic standoff over Ukraine and the joint work is seen as one of the few true success stories in post Cold War ties.

Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev along with Steve Swanson of NASA had taken off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in a spectacular night-time launch that initially went off without a problem.

The issue arose once their Soyuz capsule was in orbit and a thruster failed to fire to assist its approach for docking with the ISS.



Russian Soyuz-FG rocket with the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft and a crew of US astronaut Steven Swanson, Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev aboard, blasts off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, on March 26, 2014 (AFP Photo/Vasily Maximov)


US space agency NASA said in a statement on its website that the Soyuz spacecraft "was unable to complete its third thruster burn to fine-tune its approach" to the orbiting space station.

The trio were using a fast-track approach to the ISS that Russia has been employing since 2013. After the problem, they are now using the traditional two-day longer approach that was employed up to 2012.

NASA said the three men were "in good spirits" despite the change of plan.

The Soyuz capsule later carried out two manoeuvres in orbit bringing it on the correct trajectory for the adapted two-day route to the ISS, a Roscosmos source told Interfax.

A third and final manoeuvre would be performed on Thursday to bring the craft to the right altitude for the eventual docking, the source added.




Russian Soyuz-FG rocket with the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft and a crew of US astronaut Steven Swanson, Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev aboard, blasts off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, early on March 26, 2014 (AFP Photo/Vasily Maximov)


- 'Mathematical problem?' -

NASA said Russian flight controllers were reviewing data to work out why the third thruster burn did not occur as planned.

"Initial information indicates the problem may have been the spacecraft was not in the proper attitude, or orientation, for the burn," NASA said.

The head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos Oleg Ostapenko said the problem appeared to have been triggered by a hitch with the orientation system.

"The crew have taken off their space suits and are continuing their flight normally," he said.



Russian Soyuz-FG rocket with the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft and a crew of US astronaut Steven Swanson, Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev aboard, blasts off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, early on March 26, 2014 (AFP Photo/Vasily Maximov)


The head of the Russian rocket state firm Energia that supplies the Soyuz rocket that propels the craft into space however said that the origin of the problem was not yet clear.

"It could be mathematics, it could be a transmitter problem or that the engine choked. But most likely it was a mathematical problem," said Vitaly Lopota, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

This would imply that ground scientists failed to work out the correct altitude in orbit for the thruster to fire to take the Soyuz to the ISS.

Roscosmos said the docking was now provisionally expected at 3:58 am Moscow time Friday (2358 GMT Thursday).

After the retirement of the US shuttle, NASA is for now wholly reliant on Russia for delivering astronauts to the space station on its tried-and-trusted Soyuz launch and capsule system.


- 'Friends in the kitchen' -

At the pre-flight news conference at Baikonur, senior astronauts Skvortsov and Swanson said they had decided to have dinners together on board the ISS "as an opportunity to come together as friends in the kitchen and look each other in the eye".

Skvortsov is making his second space flight and Swanson, a veteran of two past shuttle missions, his third.

Artemyev meanwhile is making his first voyage to space. He took part in a 2009 experiment where volunteers were shut up in a capsule at a Moscow laboratory for 105 days to simulate the effects of a possible voyage to Mars.

After docking, the trio will bring the ISS crew up to six by joining incumbent crew Koichi Wakata of Japan, American Rick Mastracchio and Russian Mikhail Tyurin.


http://news.yahoo.com/russian-us-crew-blast-off-iss-kazakhstan-213536569.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Russian rocket launches with American on board
Associated Press
By DMITRY LOVETSKY  22 hours ago



In this photo taken with a fisheye lens and long exposure, the Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-12M space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS) blasts off over an antenna at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, March 26, 2014. The Russian rocket carries U.S. astronaut Steven Swanson, Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)



BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) — Their relationship on Earth may be at its lowest ebb in decades, but the U.S. and Russia haven't allowed their disagreements over Ukraine get in the way of their joint mission in space.

In the early hours of Wednesday local time, a rocket carrying a Russian-American crew to the International Space Station blasted off successfully from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Soyuz booster rocket lifted off as scheduled at 3:17 a.m. local time Wednesday (2117 GMT Tuesday), lighting up the night skies over the steppe with a giant fiery tail. It entered a designated orbit in about 10 minutes after the launch. All onboard systems were working flawlessly, and the crew was feeling fine.

The crew — NASA astronaut Steve Swanson and Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev — are set to dock the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft at the station less than six hours after the launch and are scheduled to stay in orbit for six months.

Swanson is a veteran of two U.S. space shuttle missions, and Skvortsov spent six months at the space outpost in 2010. Artemyev is on his first flight to space.

So far, the tensions between the U.S. and Russia over Ukraine have been kept at bay. Since the retirement of the U.S. shuttle fleet in 2011, NASA has relied on Russian Soyuz spacecraft as the only means to ferry crew to the orbiting outpost and back.



The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-12M space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS) blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, March 26, 2014. The Russian rocket carries astronaut Steven Swanson, Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)


The U.S. pays Russia nearly $71 million per seat to fly astronauts to the space lab through 2017. It's doing that at a time when it has led calls for sanctions on Russia over its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine following a hastily-arranged referendum. So far the sanctions have been limited and haven't directly targeted the wider Russian economy.

Earlier this month, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden repeatedly said the conflict in Ukraine would have no effect on what's going on in space between the U.S. and Russia, saying that the "partnership in space remains intact and normal."

He said there's a long history of countries cooperating in orbit, while clashing on terra firma, which is why he said some people have nominated the 16-nation International Space Station for the Nobel Peace Prize.

At the same time, Bolden said on his blog Tuesday that while NASA continues to cooperate successfully with Russia, it wants to quickly get its own capacity to launch crews. NASA is trying to speed up private American companies' efforts to launch crew to orbit, but it needs extra funding to do so.

"But even as the 'space race' has evolved over the past 50 years from competition to collaboration with Russia, NASA is rightfully focused now more than ever on returning our astronauts to space aboard American rockets — launched from U.S. soil — as soon as possible," he said.

NASA spokesman David Weaver said "NASA is working aggressively to return human spaceflight launch to American soil, and end our sole reliance on Russia to get into space." He added that later this year the agency plans to select the American companies that will transport its astronauts to the space station beginning in 2017.

The arriving trio will be greeted by Japan's Koichi Wakata, NASA's Rick Mastracchio and Russia's Mikhail Tyurin, who have been at the station since November. Wakata is the first Japanese astronaut to lead the station.


http://news.yahoo.com/russian-rocket-launches-american-board-225804401.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Leaving politics behind, Russian-U.S. crew blasts off for space
Reuters
By Irene Klotz  16 hours ago



The Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of U.S. astronaut Steven Swanson, Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev blasts off from its launch pad at the Baikonur cosmodrome March 26, 2014. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov



CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Two Russian cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut blasted off for six-month stay aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday, a partnership unaffected by the political rancor and economic sanctions triggered by Russia's annexation of Crimea.

The Russian Soyuz rocket carrying cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronaut Steven Swanson lifted off at 5:17 p.m. EDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The trip to the space station, a $100 billion research laboratory that flies about 260 miles above Earth, was scheduled to take about six hours. However, an unknown problem caused the crew's Soyuz capsule to skip two planned steering maneuvers, delaying the crew's arrival until Thursday.

"The crew is in no danger. The Soyuz (is) equipped with plenty of consumables to go even beyond the next two days, should that be become necessary. Nobody expects that that will be the case," mission commentator Rob Navias said during a NASA Television broadcast.

Russian flight controllers expect to get more information about why the Soyuz's thrusters failed to fire when the capsule flies over ground communications stations later on Tuesday.



The Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft carrying the International Space Station (ISS) crew of U.S. astronaut Steven Swanson, Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev blasts off from its launch pad at the Baikonur cosmodrome March 26, 2014. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov


"Initial information indicates the problem may have been the spacecraft was not in the proper orientation for the burn," NASA said in a status report posted on its website.

Russia's state television channel Rossiya-24 quoted national space agency Roscosmos as saying the flight of the Soyuz spaceship was now taking place "in a reserve mode" after its orientation engines failed to ignite.

"It's all normal on board," it said.

Docking was tentatively retargeted for 7:58 p.m. EDT on Thursday.

Several hours before the docking, Soyuz will make a final emergency maneuver to enter the orbit of the space station, RIA news agency quoted a Russian space official as saying.



Members of the International Space Station (ISS) crew, Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov (L) and Oleg Artemyev (R) and U.S. astronaut Steven Swanson (C) wave as they board the Soyuz spacecraft before their launch at the Baikonur cosmodrome March 26, 2014. REUTERS/Vasily Maximov


The arrival of Skvortsov, Artemyev and Swanson will return the station to a full six-member crew. The orbital outpost, a project of 15 nations, has been short-staffed since two other cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut returned to Earth on March 11.

The space station partnership, overseen by the United States and Russia, so far has been immunized from the political and economic fallout following Russia's invasion of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.

"We don't want to see political turmoil and it could ultimately get in the way of our spaceflight, but from the operator standpoint ... this is absolutely a non-issue for us," NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, who is due to fly to the station in May, said in a CBS News interview on March 18.

"I mean, we're three really good friends climbing into a Soyuz (capsule) to fly into space. All politics aside, there's no doubt it's going to work for us," Wiseman said.

The United States currently pays Russia more than $63 million per seat to fly its astronauts to and from the space station.

The Russian part of the station taps electricity generated by U.S.-owned and operated solar wing panels and supplements its ground-based communications with NASA's orbital satellite network, among other U.S.-provided services.

One of the first orders of business for the newly arriving station crewmembers will be to capture and berth a Space Exploration Technologies' Dragon cargo capsule, which is due to launch on Sunday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Two Russian spacewalks are planned during the crew's six-month mission, as well as two or three outings overseen by NASA.


http://news.yahoo.com/leaving-politics-behind-russian-u-crew-blasts-off-020606009--sector.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Russian rocket blasts off for space station
Associated Press
March 25, 2014 5:54 PM



BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) — A rocket carrying a Russian-American crew to the International Space Station has blasted off successfully from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Soyuz booster rocket lifted off as scheduled at 3:17 a.m local time Wednesday (2117 GMT Tuesday), lighting up the night skies over the steppe with a giant fiery tail. It entered a designated orbit in about 10 minutes after the launch. All onboard systems were working flawlessly, and the crew was feeling fine.

So far, there have been no signs that the tensions between the U.S. and Russia over Ukraine could affect the space program.

The crew — NASA astronaut Steve Swanson and Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev — are set to dock the Soyuz TMA-12M spacecraft at the station less than six hours after the launch and are scheduled to stay in orbit for six months.

Swanson is a veteran of two U.S. space shuttle missions, and Skvortsov spent six months on the space outpost in 2010. Artemyev is on his first flight to space.

The trio will be greeted by Japan's Koichi Wakata, NASA's Rick Mastracchio and Russia's Mikhail Tyurin, who have been at the station since November. Wakata is the first Japanese astronaut to lead the station.

NASA has relied on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to ferry crew to the orbiting outpost and back to Earth following the retirement of the U.S. shuttle fleet in 2011.


http://news.yahoo.com/russian-rocket-blasts-off-space-station-213236711.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Snag delays arrival of crew at space station
Associated Press
By NATALIYA VASILYEVA  15 hours ago



The Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-12M space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS) blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, March 26, 2014. The Russian rocket carries astronaut Steven Swanson, Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)



MOSCOW (AP) — An engine snag has delayed the arrival of a Russian spacecraft carrying three astronauts to the International Space Station until Thursday.

A rocket carrying Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and American Steve Swanson to the space station blasted off successfully early Wednesday from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Soyuz booster rocket lifted off as scheduled at 3:17 a.m. local time Wednesday (2117 GMT Tuesday). It entered a designated orbit about 10 minutes after the launch and was expected to reach the space station in six hours. All onboard systems were working flawlessly, and the crew was feeling fine.

NASA and Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, said shortly before the planned docking that the arrival had been delayed after a 24-second engine burn that was necessary to adjust the Soyuz spacecraft's orbiting path "did not occur as planned."

The crew is in no danger, but will have to wait until Thursday for the Soyuz TMA-12M to arrive and dock at the space station, NASA said. The arrival is now scheduled for 7:58 p.m. EDT (2358 GMT) Thursday.

Roscosmos chief Oleg Ostapenko said on Wednesday that the glitch occurred because of a failure of the ship's orientation system. The crew is in good spirits and they have taken off their space suits to prepare for the long flight, Ostapenko said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies.



In this photo taken with a fisheye lens and long exposure, the Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-12M space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station (ISS) blasts off over an antenna at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, March 26, 2014. The Russian rocket carries U.S. astronaut Steven Swanson, Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev. (AP Photo/Dmitry Lovetsky)


The Russian official said the crew is now working to adjust the spacecraft to the right orbit to make it for the Thursday docking.

Russian spacecraft used to routinely travel two days to reach the orbiting laboratory before last year. Wednesday would have been only the fifth time that a crew would have taken the six-hour "fast-track" route to the station.

So far, the tensions between the U.S. and Russia over Ukraine have been kept at bay. Since the retirement of the U.S. space shuttle fleet in 2011, NASA has relied on Russian Soyuz spacecraft as the only means to ferry crew to the orbiting outpost and back.

The U.S. is paying Russia nearly $71 million per seat to fly astronauts to the space lab through 2017.


http://news.yahoo.com/snag-delays-arrival-crew-space-station-045627447.html