The departure of two Russian cosmonauts and one US astronaut from the International Space Station was delayed until Saturday at the earliest because their Soyuz capsule could not undock from the station, the US space agency said. Hooks and latches on the station's docking port would not open, delaying the undocking from the original Friday morning, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said. It was the first time in the station's history that a Russian Soyuz capsule had not departed from the station as planned, dpa reported. As the Mission Control Centers in Houston and Moscow tried to solve the problem, the station's flight engineer, Fyodor Yurchikhin, said he found a 2-centimetre-long object, possibly a gear, floating in the station's docking port, Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported. Video of the part was sent to Houston and Moscow to determine whether it was the culprit and more tests were being conducted, NASA said. Initially, engineers on Earth and the crew of the station had examined the docking module while American Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Russians Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko remained inside the Soyuz craft in the hopes they could still return to Earth Friday. The undocking had originally been scheduled for 0135 GMT but has now been delayed for at least 24 hours, NASA said. The three space travellers were ordered to return to the space station, where they have been stationed 350 kilometres above the Earth since April, tasked primarily with conducting scientific experiments. Their return to solid ground is to come with a landing in Kazakhstan. The station's crew is scheduled to be replenished with the take-off October 7 of a Soyuz capsule from the Russian space centre at Baikonur, Kazakhstan, with cosmonauts Alexander Kaleri, Oleg Skripochka and astronaut Scott Kelly on board. They are to dock two days later with the station.
