Soyuz TMA-15M crew to stay on ISS for one month longer, return to Earth on June 11 - source
MOSCOW. May 8 (Interfax-AVN) - The mission program of the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft crew currently working onboard the International Space Station (ISS) has been adjusted following the failed launch of the Progress M-27M re-supply ship and the crew members will return to the Earth on June 11 instead of May 14, a space rocket sector source told Interfax-AVN.
"It has been decided that Russia's Anton Shkaplerov, Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy and American Terry Virts will stay onboard the International Space Station for about one month longer. The Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft with them onboard is expected to land in Kazakhstan on June 11," he said.
Such a decision was adopted in response to changes made to the ISS manned and unmanned missions program after the loss of the Progress M-27M cargo carrier on April 28, he said.
The crew currently working onboard the ISS includes Russian cosmonauts Shkaplerov, Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Korniyenko, Cristoforetti, as well as NASA astronauts Virts and Scott Kelly. Shkaplerov, Cristoforetti and Virts were to return to the Earth on May 14, leaving behind Padalka, Korniyenko and Kelly.
The May 26 launch of Russia's Soyuz TMA-17M manned spacecraft has been postponed pending the completion of an inquiry into the Progress accident.