Moscow, The International Space Station (ISS) has enough supplies of food, water and life-supporting materials until the next summer, mission control head of the ISS Russian segment Vladimir Solovyov said Sunday.
Solovyov, also a cosmonaut, made the remarks at a lecture at the Moscow State University, after a Russian spacecraft failed to deliver new crew and materials to the station, according to TASS news agency.
The capsule of the Russian Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft with Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin and U.S. astronaut Nick Hague on board made an emergency landing in Kazakhstan Thursday after the carrier rocket malfunctioned shortly after lift-off.
Russia then suspended manned space missions and is investigating the cause of the incident. Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft is currently the only vehicle for spaceflights between the ISS and the Earth.
Russian cosmonaut Sergei Prokopyev, U.S. astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor and German astronaut Alexander Gerst are now working on the ISS.
They flew to the orbit taking Russia’s Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft that blasted off on June 6 and they are scheduled to stay on board the space station for 187 days.
A minor air leak was detected on Aug. 30 on the Soyuz MS-09 spaceship that is docked to the ISS. Astronauts on board patched up the leak on the next day.
The Russian state space corporation Roscosmos formed an investigation commission, but it has yet to publish the conclusion.
