Russian spacecraft progress fails to dock with ISS

The Russian spacecraft Progress M-15M, which undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) more than 24 hour ago, was to dock with the orbital complex again on Tuesday. However, an emergency situation emerged when it was approaching the ISS and the docking was put off for an indefinite time, (ITAR-TASS) learnt at the Flight Control Center (FCC) near Moscow. “When the spacecraft Progress M-15M was approaching the station, apparatus indicated an accident and the docking system Kursk took the spacecraft away from the orbital complex,” the source said. At present, a meeting is under way to decide if this docking will be made. If the spacecraft has enough fuel, then, according to preliminary data, the docking could be made on July 28. Progress undocked from the ISS on Moscow. After that FCC specialists gradually took it away from the station to a distance of 165 kilometers. During an almost 30-hour autonomous flight of Progress, the new equipment Kursk-NA was being tested in different regimes.