Recent tests of a Russian spaceship set to launch a new crew to the International Space Station in March have revealed worrisome cracks in the spacecraft's landing capsule, according to Russian news reports.
The Soyuz TMA-04M is slated to launch to the orbiting complex on March 29, but cracks in the spacecraft's descent vehicle were uncovered during testing, reported the Russian news service Interfax-AVN, who quoted an unnamed space industry official.
"The descent vehicle's shell broke during air tightness testing," the unnamed industry official told Interfax. "This descent capsule can no longer be used in a manned flight. The remaining time is not enough to prepare the descent capsule built for the next Soyuz. Therefore, the launch of the Soyuz TMA-04M will have to be rescheduled until the second half of April or the first half of May."
"We'll work with our Russian colleagues to understand what occurred," NASA spokesperson Kylie Clem told SPACE.com. "They will investigate what happened, and we'll work with them."
"There is plenty of margin for the current space station crew to stay onboard longer, if necessary, and plenty of margin in the manifest for upcoming launches," Clem added.
Russia's space agency has been plagued with a string of accidents over the past year, including several unmanned rocket failures and a botched mission to the Mars moon Phobos. The Mars probe crashed back to Earth on Jan. 15.
Russia's latest rocket launch occurred Wednesday (Jan. 25), when a Soyuz rocket successfully launched the Progress 46 cargo ship to the space station. That Progress spacecraft will dock at the orbiting laboratory later today.
