Second Docking Attempt for Russian Spacecraft Planned for Monday Night

The Soyuz MS-14 Spacecraft
The Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft is pictured during its first docking attempt early Saturday.

International Space Station managers and the international partners met on Saturday and approved a plan to allow a second rendezvous and docking attempt for the unpiloted Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft to occur on Monday night. The Soyuz’ initial docking attempt early Saturday was aborted after what Russian officials said was a suspected problem with a component associated with the Kurs automated rendezvous system for the Poisk module docking port.

The Soyuz was commanded to back away from the station after approaching to within 100 meters of Poisk when the vehicle could not achieve a solid telemetry lock to that docking port through the automated rendezvous system. The unpiloted Soyuz is currently orbiting a safe distance from the ISS with all of its systems functioning normally. The six crewmembers on board the station were never in any danger during the initial rendezvous attempt.

Plans now call for the unpiloted Soyuz to execute a second docking attempt Monday night at 10:12 p.m. Central time, 11:12 p.m. Eastern time, but this time to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module. The Kurs system on Zvezda has been checked out and is in perfect working order. NASA TV coverage of the docking Monday night will begin at 9:30 p.m. Central time, 10:30 p.m. Eastern time.

To accommodate the new plan, Expedition 60 crewmembers Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos, Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and Drew Morgan of NASA will don their Russian Sokol launch and entry suits Sunday night, climb aboard their Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft which docked to Zvezda on July 20 and undock for a 25-minute Soyuz relocation maneuver and a manual docking by Soyuz commander Skvortsov to the Poisk module. The suspect Kurs rendezvous unit component for Poisk is not a factor for the relocation maneuver by Skvortsov and his Soyuz crewmates.

NASA TV coverage of the relocation will begin Sunday night at 10 p.m. Central time, 11 p.m. Eastern time. Undocking of the Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft from Zvezda is scheduled at 10:34 p.m. Central time, 11:34 p.m. Eastern time with redocking to Poisk scheduled at 10:59 p.m. Central time, 11:59 p.m. Eastern time.

It would be the first Soyuz relocation since August 2015 when Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos and NASA’s Scott Kelly conducted a similar operation, but in reverse, flying their Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft from Poisk to Zvezda.

The docking of the unpiloted Soyuz Monday night will preserve the robotic release of the SpaceX Dragon cargo craft Tuesday morning after a four-week stay at the station. Dragon will be deorbited for a parachute-assisted splashdown several hours later in the Pacific Ocean, bringing home cargo and valuable scientific experiments from the orbital laboratory.

16 thoughts on “Second Docking Attempt for Russian Spacecraft Planned for Monday Night”

    1. There are two Soyuz spacecraft currently at the station and each Soyuz can carry no more than three crewmembers. Placing three crewmates in the Soyuz MS-13 is a safety precaution since the Soyuz spacecraft can also be used as a lifeboat to return the crew to Earth in case of an emergency.

    2. Hi, I understand the 3 of them are in because if they can not dock again …. have to return to Earth .

  1. I am four and three quarters and I am really interested in the space station. Good luck with the docking from cloudy Connecticut.

  2. I hope everything goes to plan with the second docking and you the robot.
    From lovely Surrey Hills in Australia!

  3. Do not go gentle into that good night….
    Good luck with the docking. You got to spin it like cooper.

  4. Thank you Mark Garcia,
    the “3 people in a life boat” was something I overlooked.
    Six people on station, Two craft, Three people per craft.
    And now I know.
    Oh, there are many friends that will learn of this over the next year or so…
    Unless I forget about it…

  5. What made you all so courageous? I highly respect all of you. Thank you for sharing your missions and photos with us. Knowledge is power!!!! You empower us. God bless you and make it back safe.

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