The International Space Station is seen from aboard the Russian unmanned Progress M-47 cargo during docking, in this Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2003, file image from television. A faulty antenna apparently prevented an unmanned Russian cargo ship from mooring completely to the international space station Thursday, Oct. 26, 2006 but the three-man crew was not in any danger, Mission Control said. The antenna on the Progress M-58 spacecraft apparently failed to fold, keeping the ship from hooking up fully, said Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin, adding that Mission Control experts were looking into the problem. "The problem poses no danger to the station's crew," Lyndin told The Associated Press.
(AP Photo/APTN, File)
Russia cargo ship docks at space station
MOSCOW --Russian Mission Control experts on Thursday succeeded in latching a cargo ship securely onto the international space station, after an initial failure to complete the docking, an official said.
"The repeat attempt to hook up the ship with the station has been a success," Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin told The Associated Press.
Lyndin said that Mission Control experts, working by radio command, moved the Progress about 16 inches back and then attempted to latch it firmly onto the station again.
"The crew has confirmed that the attempt was successful and the ship has been latched on securely onto the station," he told the AP.
The cargo ship was bringing some 2.5 tons of supplies to the station's crew, but they were unable to unload the goods until the problem was fixed.
Lyndin and other Russian space officials said earlier that, even if the ship could not be unloaded quickly, the station's three-man crew faced no danger and had enough oxygen, water and food.
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