An unmanned Russian cargo spaceship failed to dock with the International Space Station (ISS) due to a glitch in the docking system, fight controllers have said.
The Progress spacecraft, carrying 2.6 tonnes of fuel, food and other supplies for the ISS, was launched on June 30 and was to dock with the station in automatic mode on Friday evening, but instead sailed past it, said Russia's space agency Roscosmos.
“When Progress was within 2 km of the station, the ship's automatic control for some reason banned further manoeuvring and the ship,” a Roscosmos press officer told reporters.
Mission controllers have let the Progress orbit the earth as they try to establish what went wrong with the docking system on the ship. There was no danger for the ISS or its crew of three Russians and three Americans as the cargo ship flew past at a safe distance of about 3 km. Space officials insisted there was no emergency onboard the Progress either and the ship was under control.
“The Progress ship and the international space station are in working order and reliable communication with them is being maintained,” Roscosmos deputy head Vitaly Davydov told Russian television.
He said the cargo ship had enough fuel to perform the docking. The next attempt to dock the cargo ship has been scheduled for Sunday evening.
The Progress cargo ships have proved themselves reliable workhorses over many years, and it is for the first time that a spaceship has missed the station.
Russian manned spacecraft, Soyuz, and resupply vehicles, Progress, will bear the burden of all flights to the ISS when the U.S. shuttle programme is scrapped after two final flights expected this year or early 2011.
