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Shift change on the ISS

The space shuttle Discovery touched down safely in Florida on Saturday, marking the end of mission STS-119.

sts touchdown.jpg

And as one mission comes home, another is just starting, as a Russian Soyuz docks at the International Space Station, carrying space tourist Charles Simonyi. All did not go smoothly however, notes AFP:

“One of the engines had a fault which the computer considered was serious and it began to move the Soyuz away from the ISS at a rate of one metre per second,” mission control official Vladimir Sovlov told RIA-Novosti news agency.

“We decided not to allow that and asked the crew to intervene. The commander judged the engine was working normally and we authorised him to approach in manual mode, which was carried out successfully.”

Mission control spokesman Valery Lyndin told Reuters, “This is not unusual. Now everything is fine.”

Image: NASA

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