Updated 07:42 a.m. Moscow Time
BAYKONUR (KAZAKHSTAN), September 26 (RIA Novosti) - The head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos told journalists Friday that the jammed solar battery on the manned Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft eventually unfolded after the ship berthed with the International Space Station.
"The battery unfolded two minutes ago, at 6:50 a.m. [2:50 GMT]," Oleg Ostapenko announced.
The stuck solar panel was one of the spacecraft's two batteries designed to supply it with power. The agency reported earlier that it remained stuck in stowed position, forcing the Soyuz to navigate to the Russian segment of the ISS.
A Roscosmos spokesman told RIA Novosti there was no need for the cosmonauts to interfere with the work of the Kurs rendezvous and docking system. The berthing was conducted in an automatic mode and went down according to the schedule.
The Soyuz-FG orbital carrier rocket blasted off from a launching pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The spacecraft brought an international crew of three to the ISS. It consists of Yelena Serova, Russia's first female cosmonaut in 17 years, as well as her fellow cosmonaut Alexander Samokutyayev and NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore.
Yelena Serova is the fourth female cosmonaut from Russia to ever fly in space, the first being USSR's Valentina Tereshkova who made history in 1963 as the first woman ever to go into space on a sole flight. Serova's flight has effectively ended spaceflight's 17-year male "hegemony."
A source in the space agency's mission control center alerted RIA Novosti to a malfunction in one of the Soyuz' solar panels, which are part of the ship's power supply system. The agency's representative said however that the Soyuz spacecraft would keep to its six-hour docking schedule.
Soyuz TMA-14M's mission to the International Space Station has been the 123rd since 1967. The Soyuz spaceship is expected to remain on board the station as an emergency escape vehicle.
