Launch of Russia's manned spacecraft Soyuz postponed by two weeks

The launch of Russia's manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-17M with the crew of the next mission on board the International Space Station (ISS) has been postponed till June 11, TASS news agency reported on Thursday.

Earlier on Thursday, Russian space agency Roscosmos said it would make a decision on launching the Soyuz TMA-17M manned spacecraft after the state commission established the reasons behind the failure of the Progress M-27M spacecraft.

"The launch has been moved from May 26 to June 11," said the source from the space rocket industry.

A session of an inter-departmental commission was scheduled at Star City outside Moscow for Friday to approve the main and backup crews. However, sources from the Cosmonaut Training Centre told TASS that the session and a pre-flight news conference had been postponed. The reasons were not specified.

The main crew of a new expedition scheduled to go to the ISS aboard the Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft comprises Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Kimiya Yui and NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren.

The back-up crew consists of Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, European Space Agency astronaut Timothy Peake of Britain and NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra.