ATV-3 Undocking from ISS Postponed Indefinitely

An undocking of Europe's ATV-3 unmanned resupply spacecraft from the International Space Station (ISS) has been postponed for at least another day, a spokesman for the Mission Control said.

ATV-3 undocking from the ISS was initially scheduled for 2:35 a.m. Moscow time on Wednesday (10:35 p.m. GMT Tuesday). It was planned to be de-orbited and sunk in the Pacific Ocean on Thursday.

"According to our information, the undocking of the European spacecraft was cancelled. The reasons are not clear as of now. It is also unknown for how long the maneuver has been postponed," the spokesman said.

This is the first postponement of undocking of European and Japanese cargo spacecrafts from the ISS. All previous cases of undocking were carried out in line with the scheduled time.

The third Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), named after Italian physicist Edoardo Amaldi, blasted off from the Kourou space center in French Guiana on March 23. The European spacecraft docked automatically to the aft port of the Zvezda service module on March 28.

Source: RIA Novosti