KOROLYOV, Moscow Region. July 19 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian mission control has had to adjust the operations of its segment of the International Space Station (ISS) due to the delay in the launch of U.S. Space Shuttle to the station.
"We are changing the flight program because the launch of the shuttle is being postponed. For instance, today we re-docked the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the Zarya module even though the operation was scheduled for a later date," Nikolai Sevastnyanov, head of the Energia rocket and space corporation, said on Tuesday.
Russia has been tentatively informed that the shuttle will not be launched before July 26, he said.
Meanwhile, Vladimir Solovyov, the flight commander of Russia's ISS segment, said that an incident that occurred when the crew was preparing for re-docking "was not extraordinary."
When crewmembers entered the spacecraft and started closing the hatches, sensors indicated that the air seals had not been properly engaged.
"We closed the hatch twice, because the first time we closed it outside the telemetric data zone and doubted the reliability of the closure. As we had time to spare, we simply closed the hatch for a second time," Solovyov said. He denied media reports that communication with the ISS was lost during the operation. "There was no loss of communication," he said.