MOSCOW, Sept. 26 (Xinhua) -- A European spacecraft failed to undock from the International Space Station (ISS) due to communications problems, Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said Wednesday.
The agency said the incident's impact on the mission was limited.
Roscosmos said the ATV-3 unmanned spaceship did not send a signal to mission control and the ISS crew confirming the craft's readiness to undock.
"A signal was not received that a test operation had been completed. Mission Control Center in Tulusa (France) therefore decided to suspend the undocking process until the cause of the failure is found," Roscosmos said in a statement.
Russian, NASA and European space experts are investigating the failure, which Russian Mission Control Center said would not affect the ISS program.
The ATV-3 spacecraft's undocking was planned for 02:35 a.m. Moscow time Wednesday (2235 GMT on Tuesday). The next attempt could be made at 1:00 a.m. Moscow time on Friday (2100 GMT Thursday), Roscosmos said.
|
