"You should be prepared that we shall not immediately de-orbit all the next Progress spaceships - they can be successfully used for making scientific experiments," he said.
According to him, the sinking of the Progress M1-11 freight spaceship, earlier scheduled for May 24, has been put off for approximately ten days.
"Scientific experiments under a Russian program will be carried out on it," Viktor Blagov noted.
However, he did not specify what exactly experiments are supposed to be made on board the Progress which had already been loaded with garbage. "This spaceship is multipurpose - it can deliver cargoes, sink trash and can be used for making experiments," Blagov said.
As official spokesman for the Mission Control Center Valery Lyndin told RIA Novosti earlier on Wednesday, on Monday, May 24, at 1:20 p.m., Moscow time, "the Progress M1-11 will be undocked from the ISS, removed from it to a safe distance and will be left in orbit where it will remain under a constant control of the Mission Control Center's specialists." At the same time, the Center's specialists continue preparations for docking a new freight spaceship, Progress M-49, with the ISS. Its launching from Baikonur has been scheduled for May 25. The automatic docking of the Progress M-49 with the station has been planned for May 27.
