MOSCOW, April 28. /TASS/. Two out of five antennas of the Kurs docking system failed to open on Russia’s Progress M-27M space freighter launched on Tuesday, a source in the rocket and space industry said.
"Two antennas did not open on the Progress space freighter launched today. In the next hour and a half, i.e. at the next circuit when the spaceship flies over the territory of Russia, an additional package of commands will be sent to it for these antennas to open," the source said.
The source said a set of extra commands for unfolding the antennas will be dispatched to the spacecraft during next orbit.
Russia’s space control center earlier did not confirm information that the antenna of the Kurs docking system failed to open on the space freighter.
"I don’t have such information. The only thing I can say is that the spacecraft was delivered into orbit close to the designated one. At the first stage of the spacecraft’s autonomous flight, we started to receive telemetric data with interruptions," a spokesman for the mission control said.
The Mission Control Center told TASS that the cargo spacecraft that was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday morning has been transferred to a two-day scheme of docking to the ISS.
The reserve date for docking the Progress cargo spacecraft M-27M at the International Space Station is May 2.
"According to preliminary estimates on April 30 the docking will be possible at 12:02 Moscow time," the source said. If the docking attempt on that day fails, 11:53 of May 2 has been identified as the reserve time slot," the center said.