Russian Cosmonauts To Replace Faulty Signal Amplifier That Caused Soyuz To Abort Docking

Daniyal Sohail Published August 24, 2019 | 06:25 PM

Russian cosmonauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) will replace a faulty signal amplifier of the Kurs rendezvous system that is believed to have prompted the Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft to abort its docking with the ISS earlier on Saturday, the NASA broadcast showed

MOSCOW/KOROLYOV (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th August, 2019) Russian cosmonauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) will replace a faulty signal amplifier of the Kurs rendezvous system that is believed to have prompted the Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft to abort its docking with the ISS earlier on Saturday, the NASA broadcast showed.

Russian experts from the Mission Space Center instructed the Russian cosmonauts to make the replacement.

Cosmonaut Vladimir Solovyov, the head of the control center of the Russian segment of the ISS, in turn, told reporters that the malfunction that caused the incident was "fixable." He added that the high-qualified crew at the ISS would fix it.

"The Soyuz spacecraft is in automatic flight, we have not lost it in any way. All equipment is working," he said.

The Soyuz MS-14 with humanoid robot Skybot F-850, nicknamed FEDOR, on board was successfully launched into space on Thursday.

Earlier on Saturday, the spacecraft, however, failed to dock at the ISS on schedule and started retreating from the station. Later, the spacecraft was pulled to a safe distance from the ISS, while the docking was delayed until Monday morning.

Russia's State Space Corporation Roscosmos, meanwhile, told Sputnik that FEDOR was "calm and waiting for docking."

In a separate statement, the corporation strongly refuted claims circulated in media that the Soyuz might be deorbited and buried in an ocean in case it fails to dock at the ISS during a second attempt.

"[This is] bollocks of dilettantes. This option is not even considered. The Soyuz spacecraft systems are operating normally, it is capable of staying in autonomous flight for a long time and, if necessary, ready to return to Earth," Roscosmos said.

A special state commission has earlier gathered to look into the aborted docking incident.