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Launch of manned spacecraft with next ISS crew postponed — source

The launch has been moved from May 26 to June 11

© EPA/TASS/CARLA CIOFFI/NASA/HANDOUT

MOSCOW, May 7. /TASS/. The launch of the manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-17M with the crew of the next mission to the International Space Station (ISS) has been postponed till June 11, a source in the space rocket industry has told TASS.

"The launch has been moved from May 26 to June 11," the source said.

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A session of an interdepartmental commission was scheduled at Star City outside Moscow for Friday to approve the main and backup crews. However, sources from the Cosmonaut Training Centre told Tass that the session and a pre-flight news conference had been postponed. The reasons were not specified.

The main crew of a new mission scheduled to go to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard the Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft comprises Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui and NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren.

The back-up crew consists of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, European Space Agency astronaut Timothy Peake (UK) and NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra.

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