Russia's Energia Urges Roscosmos To Approve Dates For Nearest Launches To ISS - Source

Russian rocket manufacturer Energia (RSC Energia) is urging state space corporation Roscosmos to speed up the approval of the dates for the nearest launches of the company's Soyuz-MS 12 and Progress MS-11 spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS), a source in the space industry told Sputnik on Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th January, 2019) Russian rocket manufacturer Energia (RSC Energia) is urging state space corporation Roscosmos to speed up the approval of the dates for the nearest launches of the company's Soyuz-MS 12 and Progress MS-11 spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS), a source in the space industry told Sputnik on Monday.

A Roscosmos representative told Sputnik last week that the ISS flight program for the year 2019, which includes the dates of launches, landings, dockings and spacewalks, was still being worked out and had not received the approval of a state commission yet.

"General Director of RSC Energia Sergey Romanov asked Roscosmos in his recent letter to speed up the final approval of the dates of the next launches of the Soyuz MS-12 manned spacecraft and the Progress MS-11 cargo spacecraft to the ISS, and presented various options for the dates," the source said.

According to the source, without the fixed dates it was impossible to schedule preparations for the launches at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The source also noted that there were just six weeks left until the planned launches of the Soyuz-MS 12, which is expected to carry Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, and NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch to the space station, on March 1. The date of the launch, however, is yet to be coordinated with Russia's international space partners and to be approved by the state commission.

A source in the industry told Sputnik earlier in January that launch of the Progress MS-11 cargo spacecraft, initially planned for March 28, had been rescheduled for April 4.