Bad weather may postpone landing of Russian spacecraft

MOSCOW. March 15. KAZINFORM The landing of a Russian spacecraft to Earth might be postponed as bad weather conditions could hamper rescue of the crew, said an official on Thursday.

"The unfavorable weather conditions -- heavy rain at the place of landing -- makes the work of rescuers very hard," Andrei Pryanishnikov,representative of the Russian aviation security watchdog Rosaviatsia, told Interfax news agency.

Rosaviatsia is in charge of search and retrieval of the cosmonauts from the landing spacecraft module.

The rescue squad consists of three planes, 14 helicopters and seven ground vehicles. All of them have arrived at the landing area near the town of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan.

Russia's Mission Control Center said on its website that the undocking of the Soyuz TMA-06M from the International Space Station (ISS) was scheduled for Friday at 04:30 Moscow time (0030 GMT). Landing of the 33/34 ISS mission comprised of two Russian cosmonauts and one U.S. astronaut was planned at 07:57 Moscow time (0357 GMT).

Canadian Chris Hadfield took over the command of the ISS 34/35 crew which also included Russian Roman Romanenko and U.S. Thomas Mashburn, said Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos.

According to Roscosomos, the final decision on whether to postpone Soyuz's landing will be made a few hours before the undocking.

Published by Xinhua