Five international microsatellites CubeSat are scheduled to be launched on Thursday from the International Space Station (ISS) following a week-long delay of technical errors, a spokesman for the Russian Mission Control said.
The space station experienced a number of problems recently as European Space Agency’s ATV-3 cargo spacecraft was unable to undock from the ISS in accordance with the schedule last month.
“Two microsatellites will be launched at 18:35 Moscow time on Thursday [2:35 p.m. GMT], the rest three at 19:35 Moscow time [3:35 p.m.],” the spokesman said.
The ISS program is a joint project between five participating space agencies: the American NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency, the Japanese JAXA, the European ESA, and the Canadian CSA.
The station has been continuously occupied for more than 11 years, having exceeded the previous record of almost 10 years held by Russia’s Mir, in 2010. The ISS is currently home to six-member multinational crew.
