April 27, 2001

Debbie Rahn/Dave Drachlis
Headquarters, Washington, DC
(Phone: 202/358-1638/2181)

Eileen Hawley
Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX
(Phone: 281-483-5111)

Release: H01-88

NASA and Russian Aviation and Space Agency Reach Decision on Soyuz 2 Launch Date

After a series of discussions today, NASA and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos), reached a decision on the launch date for the Soyuz 2 taxi mission and subsequent on-orbit activities.

Rosaviakosmos will launch the Soyuz 2 as scheduled Saturday, April 28, and has agreed to delay the Soyuz's docking to the International Space Station if additional time is required to resolve command and control computer problems aboard the station.

Today's decision will ensure continued safe operations aboard the International Space Station and provide for the timely arrival of the replacement Soyuz lifeboat.

While the International Space Station and Space Shuttle teams have made significant progress, mission managers are trying to resolve the computer issue by tomorrow. The Russian proposal to delay Soyuz docking, if required, provides critical flexibility to the mission management team.

text-only version of this release