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Progress spacecraft failed to re-dock to ISS.
21:25
On July 24, 2012 Russian Progress M-15M unmanned supply spacecraft failed to re-dock with the International Space Station (ISS) due to certain problems in the freighter's new Kurs-NA rendezvous system. The unmanned Progress M-15M, which arrived at the ISS in April, undocked from the station on July 22 to conduct a series tests of the upgraded Kurs-NA rendezvous system. The Kurs-NA system warned of a possible emergency situation and called off the re-docking when the Progress M-15M was approaching to the ISS. The Kurs-NA rendezvous system went smoothly at the beginning, but the system issued a command to stop further operations at 4:22 a.m. Moscow time (00:22 UTC) when the freighter was at a distance of 161 kilometers to the ISS. The Russian space agency promised the incident would not lead to a delay of the Japanese spacecraft HTV-3's docking with the ISS on July 27. Another attempt to dock the Progress M-15M to the ISS by using a new Kurs-NA rendezvous system will be performed on July 29.
