An engine snag has delayed the arrival of a Russian spacecraft carrying three astronauts to the International Space Station until Thursday. A rocket carrying Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev and American Steve Swanson to the International Space Station blasted off successfully early Wednesday from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz booster rocket lifted off as scheduled at 3:17 a.m. local time Wednesday (2117 GMT Tuesday). It entered a designated orbit about 10 minutes after the launch and was expected to reach the space station in six hours. All onboard systems were working flawlessly, and the crew was feeling fine. NASA and Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, said shortly before the planned docking that the arrival had been delayed after a 24-second engine burn that was necessary to adjust the Soyuz spacecraft's orbiting path "did not occur as planned." The crew is in no danger, but will have to wait until Thursday for the Soyuz TMA-12M to arrive and dock at the space station, NASA said. The arrival is now scheduled for 7:58 EDT (2358 GMT) Thursday. Roscosmos chief Oleg Ostapenko said on Wednesday that the glitch occurred because of a failure of the ship's orientation system. The crew is in good spirits and they have taken off their space suits to prepare for the long flight, Ostapenko said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies. The Russian official said the crew is now working to adjust the spacecraftt to the right orbit to make it for the Thursday docking.
