MOSCOW, January 14 (RIA Novosti) - The launch of Russia's Progress M-63 to the International Space Station has been rescheduled from February 7 to 5, Russian Mission Control said on Monday.
"The launch of the cargo spacecraft would have coincided with the launch of the U.S. space shuttle [Atlantis], which is why NASA asked us to launch Progress two days before schedule, because the docking of two spacecraft, albeit to different ports of the ISS, is undesirable," a spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that the launch time had been fixed for 4:03 p.m. Moscow time (1:03 p.m. GMT).
The rocket will lift off from the Baikonur space center, which Russia leases in Kazakhstan.
Mission Control raised the ISS orbit 5.25 kilometers (3.26 miles) over the weekend in preparation for the docking of the Russian and U.S. spacecraft.
