Russia 'in contact' with Soyuz after glitch

Russia said that it was in full contact with its Soyuz spaceship and the international space station after a “brief loss of contact”.

16 December 2010, 12:00am

1 min read

Interfax news agency reported that Russia's mission control had lost communication with the Soyuz for approximately six hours, quoting an unnamed source in the space industry.

The Soyuz spaceship blasted off on Wednesday carrying a U.S. Russian and Italian astronaut to the International Space Station.

"At the current time there is a sustainable connection between the Krasnoznamenski (military satellite control centre) and Korolyov (Space central command)," the news agency reported Defence Ministry spokesman Alexei Zolotukhin as saying.

The Russian Soyuz TMA-20 capsule was expected to dock at the space station on Thursday at 23:12 Moscow time.

The Soyuz flight is one of the last before the United States retires its reusable Discovery shuttles, leaving astronauts completely dependent on Russian craft for missions to space.