Russia replaced the entire Soyuz ship for the next mission

Interfax news agency on 1/2 led a source in the Russian aerospace industry said the country will replace Soyuz spacecraft TMA-04M , scheduled to take astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on the day. March 30, after discovering a technical error during testing.

>>>Russia delayed two flights to bring people to space

Earlier, the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said there was only one compartment on the Soyuz TMA-04M used to bring the crew back to Earth to be replaced after the tests showed that the chamber Fully sealed.

However, according to the source, not only this chamber but also the entire Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft will be replaced, since it is easier to use a completely new Soyuz spacecraft than to replace a faulty chamber that requires adjustments. be suitable.

The new Soyuz will be ready for operation within the next two weeks and tests will be conducted at Russia's Baikonur space airport located in Kazakhstan for the next six weeks.

Vladimir Popovkin, director of the Russian Federal Space Agency, said on January 31 that the launch of the new Soyuz spacecraft could be postponed until the end of April and the final decision would be made after a discussion with Mechanical Engineering. US space agency (NASA) on February 2.

Currently Soyuz is the only means to bring astronauts to ISS after the US space shuttle "retires".