PARIS, September 26 (Itar-Tass) — The undocking of the European cargo spacecraft ATV-3 Edoardo Almaldi from the International Space Station (ISS) has been postponed, an official at the European Space Agency (ESA) headquarters at Toulouse announced.
The undocking process, originally scheduled for 02:35 MSK, was aborted due to problems that emerged in the computer system. As a result, the ISS crew failed to establish communication with the cargo spacecraft from the Zvezda service module.
“The nature of the problem is currently being studied. Depending on this, the decision on a new date of the ATV-3 spacecraft possible undocking from the ISS will be made,” ESA representatives pointed out.
On March 29, the Edoardo Amaldi cargo spaceship delivered to the ISS about 6.5 tonnes of cargo - fuel, water, oxygen, food and other goods.
The first Automated Transfer Vehicle, dubbed Jules Verne, was launched to the ISS in 2008, the second ESA cargo spacecraft Johannes Kepler arrived at the International Space Station in February 2011 and remained docked to the orbiting outpost until the end of last June. The ATV-3 ship is the only spacecraft, except Russia’s Progress, that is capable of performing the functions of refuelling, orientation and regular orbit correction of the station. In addition, in case of a threat of collision with space debris, it can perform evasive manoeuvres.