Russian spacecraft fails to dock with International Space Station
On August 24, the Russian spacecraft Soyuz MS-14, with a humanoid robot on board, was supposed to dock to the International Space Station (ISS) at 8:30 (Moscow time) but could not do it and significantly moved away from the docking site, reports Interfax.
Piloted spacecraft Soyuz MS-14 with the robot FEDOR on board was expected to dock to the ISS on Saturday morning, but at the appointed time it was at 96 meters from the station. Then the spacecraft flew around the ISS and stopped in front of the docking module.
Further, it was seen on the broadcast that the automatic docking system Course did not work, and the ship began to move away from the station instead of approaching. After that, the broadcast was interrupted. At 9:00, Soyuz MS-14 had been set aside for approximately 300 meters.
Now the specialists of the RKA Mission Control Center are trying to understand the current problem and plan to make a new attempt to dock. A meeting of the Russian State Commission is scheduled, where experts must identify the problem and decide what to do with the Soyuz MS-14.
The human-rated spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome on Thursday at 6:38. Soyuz-2.1a rocket launched it into orbit. Starting from 2020 Soyuz-2.1a rocket will launch crewed spacecraft of the Russian Federation into space.