On August 24, 2019 at 05:30 UTC, the Russian “Soyuz MS-14” spacecraft was to dock with the ISS. Russian cosmonauts Aleksandr Skvortsov and Aleksey Ovchinin aboard the International Space Station commanded an approaching “Soyuz MS-14” unpiloted spacecraft to abort its docking after the spaceship’s automated rendezvous system ran into trouble, leaving ground teams assessing what went wrong and whether to attempt another link-up in orbit. There is no cosmonaut abroad to take manual control, as would be the case on a typical Soyuz mission. The “Soyuz MS-14” is also not outfitted with the TORU system, which flies on “Progress” cargo spaceships, allowing cosmonauts inside the space station to take remote control of the spacecraft for docking if necessary, using a video feed from the approaching vehicle for cues. Attachments: |