by Playfuls Staff |
31st May 2006
The Progress M-57 space freighter will be launched to the International Space Station on the back of a Soyuz-U rocket on June 24, 2006, the Federal Space Agency said Tuesday. [more]
Officials said that Commander Pavel Vinogradov will not launch a golf ball into orbit outside the International Space Station during a planned spacewalk this week: "We have made changes to the program, and cosmonauts are not launching any balls into space this time," spokesman for the Flights Management Center Valery Lyndin told Interfax news agency on Monday.
The golf ball, with a 8 km per hour speed could be a threat to other orbiting devices, including the ISS. Other experts say that depending on its rate of acceleration, the ball would progressively move down in the direction of earth and sooner or later burn in the atmosphere.
The launch will now be planned for the next ISS spacewalk which is set for November.
During the spacewalk the crew will set up a hydrogen vent valve on the hull of the Zvezda Service Module to bypass a similar valve that is congested. The vent valve is part of the Russian Elektron oxygen-generation system that separates oxygen and hydrogen from water in the device's plumbing unit. The spaceship will also deliver fuel, consumables, scientific and research equipment, foodstuffs and water for the crew of the 13th ISS expedition.
EVA, the sixth launch for Vinogradov and the second for Williams, is the first of two spacewalks planned for the Expedition 13 mission.
