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Weather conditions delay landing of Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft

The source said the landing is delayed because of weather conditions in the landing zone
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS
Photo EPA/ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, March 15 (Itar-Tass) - The landing of the Soyuz TMA-06M manned spacecraft is delayed for a day, a source from the Roskosmos Federal Space Agency has told Tass.

The source said the landing is delayed because of weather conditions in the landing zone. According to a source from the Russian space industry, the new landing time is scheduled for 07:06 Moscow time on March 16.

Addressing commander Oleg Novitsky, the head of the Russian segment of the ISS mission control centre, Vladimir Solovyov, said “the weather is not improving, it is absolutely unfavorable, and we have decided not to risk”.

It was said earlier that the landing date could be delayed for a day – from March 15 to March 16 because of adverse weather conditions.

On Thursday afternoon, the leadership of the search-and-rescue formation in the Central Military District made a proposal to the Mission Control Centre in the Moscow regional town Korolev to delay the landing of the spaceship Soyuz TMA-06M for a day over a bad weather in the landing zone.

“The highest humidity level is reported at the town Arkalyk, nonstop rain is going on, the air temperature is about zero degrees Celsius, the wind speed is 5-7 meters per second,” the press service of the Central Military District told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

The severe weather complicates the operation of military aviation, the rescue teams cannot head for the main and reserve landing zones of the spaceship.

Expedition 34 of Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin and NASA astronaut Kevin Ford is returning back to Earth.