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Manned Soyuz TMA-18M to be launched to ISS under two-day pattern

"The selected option is safer and more reliable. The docking is due on September 4," the acting chief of the federal space agency Aleksandr Ivanov said

© TASS/Mikhail Dzhaparidze

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ZHUKOVSKY /Moscow Region/, August 26. /TASS/. The manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-18M will be launched to the International Space Station early next month under a two-day approach procedure, and not the fast six-hour one, declared earlier, the Roscosmos press-service has said.

"The manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-18M, scheduled to blast off from the Baikonur space site on September 2, will be approaching the ISS for two days," the Roscosmos press-service said.

"The selected option is safer and more reliable. The docking is due on September 4," the acting chief of the federal space agency Aleksandr Ivanov said.

The press-service recalled that on July 26 the ISS took evasive action to dodge collision with space waste. The station was propelled into a higher orbit, which brought about considerable changes to ballistic conditions and required adjusting the plan for maneuvering the ISS.

The Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft is to deliver to the ISS another crew of three - Russia’s Sergey Volkov, the European Space Agency’s Andreas Mogensen and Kazakhstan’s Aidyn Aimbetov.

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