Cut in Russian link to space station not serious: NASA

NASA minimized the impact of a cut in Russia's communications link with the International Space Station on Wednesday and said the problem would likely be fixed within the hour.

"It is a cut communications cable outside of the mission control center in Moscow. That happened before. It happens from time to time," said NASA spokesman Josh Byerly.

"They still have the ability to communicate with the Russian segment (of the ISS) through us. It is what they always do anyway," he said. "So it's not the first time and there is usually no impact and they will be correcting it in the next hour."

Officials at the Roscosmos space agency, cited by Russian news agencies, said Russia had lost contact with its satellites and could not send commands to the ISS because of the severed cable.

"Our specialists lack the ability to control the civilian satellites or send commands to the Russian segment of the ISS," a source told RIA Novosti, adding that the problem could take two days to fix.

(c) 2012 AFP