VOSTOCHNY SPACEPORT (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th December, 2019) OSTOCHNY SPACEPORT, Russia, December 16 (Sputnik) - The launch of Russia's Nauka (Science) multipurpose laboratory module (MLM) to the International Space Station (ISS) may be postponed from 2020 to 2021, Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said on Monday.
Nauka has been awaiting departure to orbit since 2007. Rogozin told Russian President Vladimir Putin in August that preparations for the launch were underway, and in September Roscosmos announced that the launch would be conducted in November of the following year.
"We are also discussing creation of an orbital module. You know about our preparatory operations, we plan to deliver the MLM to Baikonur in the beginning of 2020 already, to start electric tests, to check how devices function and to ensure the ISS launch either in the end of 2020 or in the beginning of 2021," Rogozin said at a press conference.
