Cosmonauts’ Stay in Space Extended
Two Russian cosmonauts orbiting the Earth since July have been forced to extend their stay on the Mir space station by 49 days because of a delay in sending a relief craft, a space agency official said Saturday.
The official said that Vasily Tsebliyev and Alexander Serebryov, who left Earth on July 1, will remain in orbit until January, when the next crew will arrive to relieve them.
The military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda said the mission was being extended from 146 to 195 days because the space agency simply did not have any of the booster rockets needed to launch the relief mission.
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