Moscow, Feb. 24 (BNA): Russia on Friday launched a rescue ship for a NASA astronaut and cosmonaut whose original flight home caused a dangerous leak while parked on the International Space Station.
The new, empty Soyuz capsule should arrive at the orbiting laboratory on Sunday, according to the Associated Press.
A capsule leak in December was blamed on a small meteorite that penetrated an external radiator, draining it of the radiator.
The same thing appeared to happen again earlier this month, this time on a docked Russian cargo ship. Camera views showed a small pinhole in each spacecraft.
The Russian Space Agency delayed the launch of the replacement Soyuz, looking for any manufacturing defects.
No problems were found, and the agency proceeded to launch the capsule before dawn Friday from Kazakhstan with bundles of supplies strapped to the three seats.
Due to the urgent need for this capsule, two senior NASA officials flew in from the United States to personally monitor the launch.
To everyone’s relief, the capsule safely reached orbit nine minutes after liftoff — “a perfect trip into orbit,” NASA Mission Control’s Rob Navias reported from Houston.
insignificant