MOSCOW. Aug 26 (Interfax-AVN) - The Mission Control Center has decided to change the scheme of rendezvous of the Soyuz TMA-18M manned spaceship with the International Space Station (ISS). The spaceship, which is planned to take off from Baikonur on September 2, will reach the station in almost two days instead of six hours, a source in the rocket and space industry has told Interfax-AVN.
"The ISS orbit parameters make the four-orbit rendezvous impossible between the spaceship and the station. So instead of traveling for six hours, the spaceship will reach the station in almost two days," the source said.
The spaceship will blast off on September 2 and arrive at the station on September 4 rather than on September 2 as planned earlier, he said.
"The date of the Soyuz TMA-16M landing, September 12, will be unaltered," the source said.
As a result, the program of the visiting mission to the ISS will be cut by almost two days.
Soyuz TMA-18M carrying an international crew of Sergei Volkov (Roscosmos), Aidyn Aimbetov (Kazcosmos) and Andreas Mogensen (Denmark, the European Space Agency) is planned to lift off from Baikonur on September 2. Mogensen and Aimbetov will return to Earth in ten days, together with Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka.