Russian cargo spacecraft encountered a fault during its journey after launch!

If the antenna cannot be deployed, the spacecraft will be manually piloted by the backup system to dock with the space station.

Space News, March 22, reported.

A Russian Soyuz rocket launched the "Progress MS-33" cargo spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on March 22, 2026.

The spacecraft encountered a problem while heading to the International Space Station, but it should still be able to complete the mission.

The Soyuz carrier rocket carried the unmanned cargo spacecraft "Progress MS-20," which was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, operated by Russia (located in Kazakhstan), at 7:59 a.m. Eastern Time on Sunday.

The launch was smooth, but problems arose shortly after separation from the carrier rocket: one of its antennas used for automatic docking failed to deploy, according to reports.

Investigations into the failure are ongoing; if the antenna cannot be deployed, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov from the Russian Space Agency will manually pilot the spacecraft using the backup system to complete the rendezvous and docking with the space station.

The "Progress MS-27" spacecraft will transport about three tons of food, fuel, and other supplies for the astronauts currently living and working on the International Space Station (ISS).

As noted in NASA's update, the cargo spacecraft is expected to dock with the "Search" module of the space station on Tuesday morning.

This has been confirmed by Russian media TASS.

It is also prepared that the crew members of the Russian segment of the International Space Station will manually remote-operate the "Progress MS-33" spacecraft for docking in the final approach phase.

The manual docking will be carried out by Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, who is currently on the International Space Station on a mission.

Oleg Kononenko, director of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, commented: "Cosmonauts often practice manual docking with the International Space Station during flight preparation training, which is a routine operation."

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1860401628959755/

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