MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/. The director general of Russia’s Roscosmos state-run space corporation, Dmitry Rogozin, said Russian specialists were ready to assist their US colleagues in solving problems of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft.

"Since it is a matter of the ISS [International Space Station] maintenance, we reaffirm our readiness to provide expert support to our US colleagues," Rogozin wrote in his Telegram channel.

In his words, the M.V. Keldysh Research Center - an affiliate of Roscosmos and the Russian space industry's leading rocket engine designer and manufacturer - was ready to send a team of its scientists to the United States.

On July 29, NASA said it had postponed Starliner's launch to the ISS, originally due on July 30. The delay was then attributed to the unexpected activation of the science module Nauka's engines following its docking with the ISS. Starliner's launch was postponed till August 3, but several hours before the expected blastoff Boeing said that it was considering a further delay till August 4. Eventually the company said that Starliner's launch that was scheduled for Wednesday, August 4, had to be postponed indefinitely due to the need for re-checking its readiness.

A source in the space rocket industry told TASS on Tuesday that Starliner's flight to the ISS had to be postponed due to problems with the capsule's propulsion system valves. The source said it was unclear when the spacecraft might be brought to the launch pad again.

Meanwhile, NASA’s ISS program manager Joel Montalbano said on Friday, the Starliner launch will not take place before mid-October.