BAIKONUR (Kazakhstan) (Sputnik) — Initially scheduled for May 26, the Thursday Soyuz launch was delayed after the April malfunction of the third stage of a different variation of the Soyuz carrier rocket, a Soyuz 2.1a, which sent unmanned Progress M-27M cargo ship into an uncontrolled spin.
Progress M-27M burnt in the Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean after its improper separation from the Soyuz rocket, which was caused by fuel leaks, according to Roscosmos.
"During the July 23 launch of the Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur space center the left solar array did not deploy. The second solar array is functioning in normal mode and is fully meeting the vessel’s energy needs. The flight continues," a Roscosmos representative told RIA Novosti early on Thursday.
The representative added that all three crew members on board the spacecraft are feeling well.
"As before, the docking is planned for 05.47 a.m. Moscow time (02:47 GMT)," the spokesperson said.
Earlier, NASA posted a statement on its website saying that all Soyuz antennas, except "the port solar array, plane 4" deployed after the vehicle achieved stable orbit.
"This does not impact the 4-orbit rendezvous, and the Soyuz will now close the distance to the ISS in preparation for docking," NASA said.
However later the statement regarding the solar array deployment failure was removed from the NASA website.
A NASA spokesperson told RIA Novosti early on Thursday that the agency was waiting for confirmation of the solar array failure and had removed the deployment update from its website for lack of clarity on the matter. The spokesperson advised to contact Roscosmos for clarification.
