The Soyuz TMA-18M manned spaceship which blasted off from the Baikonur spaceport on September 2 has avoided an encounter with a fragment of a Japanese rocket launched in 1989, the Roscosmos press service has reported.
"In order to avoid a collision, ballisticians of the Russian and American mission control centers worked together on the precise calculation of the trajectory. The maneuver was performed at 8:40 a.m. Moscow time," says the report seen by Interfax-AVN on Sept.3.
The international crew of the Soyuz spaceship comprising of Sergei Volkov (Roscosmos), Andreas Mogensen (the European Space Agency) and Aidyn Aimbetov (Kazcosmos) departed from the Baikonur spaceport at 7:34 a.m. Moscow time on September 2.
The spaceship is planned to dock with the ISS at 10.35 a.m. Moscow time on September 4.
The orbital mission of Volkov will last for 188 days, while Mogensen and Aimbetov are planned to return to the Earth on September 12 together with cosmonaut Gennady Padalka.
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