AKIPRESS.COM - Russia’s Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft that is on a journey to the International Space Station (ISS) has made a manoeuvre to avoid a collision with a fragment of a Japanese carrier rocket, Russia’s Federal Space Agency Roscosmos told TASS on Thursday.
"A fragment of the spent third stage of a Japanese carrier rocket, launched in 1989, happened to be on the spacecraft’s flight path. Ballisticians of the Russian mission control and their American colleagues worked jointly to prevent a collision," Roscosmos said.
According to the agency, the manoeuvre was conducted at 08:40, Moscow time. "The manoeuvre ensured absolutely safe avoidance of a collision with the object expected to approach at 11:30 - 11:40, Moscow time. The Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft continues its nominal flight to the ISS," Roscosmos reported.
The spacecraft is to dock to the ISS on September 4 at 10:35, Moscow time. The Soyuz carrying Sergei Volkov, Andreas Mogensen and Aidyn Aimbetov blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 07:47, Moscow time (03:47 GMT) on Wednesday. Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov has been into space before, European Space Agency (ESA) flight engineer Andreas Mogensen of Denmark and Kazakhstan’s cosmonaut Aidyn Aimbetov, who was added to the mission after British singer and would-be space tourist Sarah Brightman dropped out of training earlier this year, are first-timers.