TORONTO – NASA announced Tuesday that three astronauts scheduled to return to Earth on May 14 will be spending a little more time on the International Space Station.
NASA, the European Space Agency and the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) agreed to postpone the return of NASA’s Terry Virts, the ESA’s Samantha Cristoforetti and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov.
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The delay is a result of the loss of Russia’s Progress resupply mission to the ISS on April 28 when controllers were unable to communicate with the spacecraft. After tumbling out of control, the craft burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere on May 7.
Roscosmos is expected to provide an update about the Progress investigation on May 22.
NASA said that the crew would return “in early June.” The next three astronauts will launch to the space station in early July.
The next Progress resupply mission — Progress 60 — will launch in early July.
NASA said that the final dates will be released in the coming weeks.
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