Russian flight control takes over full control of International Space Station for three more days

The Russian Flight Control Center will fully control the flight of the International Space Station (ISS) at least for another three days, a RIA Novosti correspondent was told at the Flight Control Center Thursday.

"It is associated with the tropical hurricane Lilly, the most powerful one in a decade, that rushed to the U.S. territory and is approaching Houston, where the U.S. Flight Control Center is located," an official of the Russian Space Center told RIA Novosti. In this connection, he said, "Houston has been switched off the ISS." He said further that the launching of the Atlantis shuttle with a Russian-American crew has been put off until October 7 because of the unfavorable weather conditions. It had been planned to launch it from a U.S. spaceport on Cape Canaveral, Florida, at night on October 3rd, Moscow time.

A RIA Novosti correspondent was told also that work at the Russian Flight Control Center "proceeds calmly but is somewhat tense," because "it is necessary not only to coordinate the actions of the Russian cosmonauts and the U.S. astronaut at the ISS, but also to exchange views with Houston on a number of questions concerning the ISS flight.