Russia today refused to put off US space tourist Dennis Tito's flight, planned for Saturday, which NASA wants to postpone due to computer failures aboard the International Space Station (ISS), according to the spokesman of the Russian space agency.
The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration had asked the Russian agency to delay the launch of its rocket carrying US businessman Tito into space, spokesman Sergei Gorbunov told AFP, but the Russians had decided to stick to the April 28 date. He added however that this decision could change.
Due to computer problems aboard the ISS, NASA had decided to put off by two days till Wednesday the return of the space shuttle Endeavour to the Kennedy center near Cape Canaveral, Florida.
But the Russian space agency had decided to temporarily unlink Endeavour to enable the docking of its Soyuz craft with the ISS, Mr Gorbunov said.
AFP