MOSCOW, April 24 (Xinhua) -- An antenna deployment failure of a Russian cargo spacecraft would not prevent it from docking with the International Space Station (ISS), the Mission Control Center said Wednesday.
One of the aerials of the Progress M-19M launched earlier Wednesday failed to come out, a mission control spokesman said.
"One of the Kurs antennae used for precise docking of the spacecraft to the ISS failed to deploy. The Mission Control has been trying to fix the problem when Progress returns to the communication zone," the spokesman told Xinhua.
He added that even if the failed antenna would not resume work, it would not prevent the docking process as the Mission Control and the ISS crew can use the backup procedures to complete the maneuver.
The situation was not considered as extraordinary, the spokesman added.
A Soyuz-U rocket carrying Progress blasted off at 14:12 Moscow time (1012 GMT) from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.
The cargo ship's docking with the ISS has been scheduled for Friday.
The spacecraft carries 2.5 tons of cargo for the six-member ISS crew from Russia, the United States and Canada.
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