The automatic shift of Soyuz TMA-12M to a trajectory of the two-day approach to the International Space Station (ISS) might have been caused by a software glitch, Energia Corporation President Vitaly Lopota said on Wednesday. "The required ballistics was not achieved during the flight. The reason is so far unknown: it could be due to the math or a sensor distortion or an engine hiccup, but most probably it was the math," he said.

Docking of piloted spaceship Soyuz with the International Space Station (ISS) scheduled for 7:04 am Moscow time (3:04 am GMT) on Wednesday is delayed for two days due to deviation in attitude control system, head of Russian space agency Roscosmos Oleg Ostapenko told reporters on Wednesday.

"Docking of the spaceship with the ISS will be made according to a two-day rendezvous program. This decision is caused by some problems in operation of attitude control system," he said.

"There is nothing extraordinary," he noted, adding that docking is planned in the morning on March 28 as of now.

Operations in the first stage of orbiting spaceship Soyuz TMA-12M were carried out as scheduled, the crew is on a flight according to the scheduled program presently, the Roscosmos chief said. "Health of crew is good, parameters of living environment are normal. The crewmembers took off spacesuits and continue the fight in planned mode," he said.

In reply to the question whether current situation would affect dockings in the future Ostapenko assured reporters that future piloted spaceships Soyuz would dock with the ISS according to a six-hour scheme.

"In any action and not only in the space, but also on the Earth, moreover, in the space, we always consider issues of redundancy in all actions, this is a normal situation, this should be so in everything," the Roscosmos head said.

"The scheme that exists is practiced and we will fulfill future actions on piloted space program within it," he noted.

For his part, head of the Cosmonaut Training Centre Sergey Krikalev also assured reporters that nothing "awful happened," as cosmonauts were feeling well and were working according to the plan. "We have just passed from one scheduled scheme to another one," he said.

In his words, the crew shifts to standby docking system in case of any even slightest malfunctions, should this be some breakdown of any system or even crew's failure to go into a communication session with the Earth. Food, fuel and oxygen stocks onboard the spaceship is available for a two-day docking scheme with the orbital station.

Source: Voice of Russia