An attempt to re-dock an unmanned Russian Progress supply ship with the International Space Station was aborted by the ship's flight computer Monday night when a new rendezvous system failed to operate as expected, flight controllers said.
By design, the spacecraft ended up on a passive return trajectory that will permit another docking attempt later this week, after engineers have a chance to diagnose what went wrong. The station's six-member crew was never in any danger, officials said.
The Russian Progress M-15M spacecraft is seen backing away from the International Space Station's Pirs module Sunday. An attempt to re-dock with the station Monday was aborted when a new navigation system encountered a failure.
(Credit: NASA TV)
The Progress M-15M spacecraft was undocked from the station's Pirs module Sunday afternoon and directed to back away to a distance of about 100 miles. The goal of the exercise was to test a new KURS rendezvous antenna that is designed to replace three antennas currently used by approaching Progress and manned Soyuz spacecraft to "lock on" to space station navigation beacons.
But Monday evening, with the Progress M-15M spacecraft at a distance of about nine miles from the station, the approach was aborted by the craft's flight computer around 8:23 p.m. EDT.
"Docking was aborted...when the new KURS-NA automatic rendezvous system, which was being ... [Read more]
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