Russia restored its communications with the International Space Station and satellites this morning after repairing a cable in Moscow that had been damaged during roadworks, Russian space agency Roscosmos has announced.

Roadworks in Moscow actually interrupted space traffic yesterday as an accidentally severed cable cut Russia's communication links with its space hardware overnight.

"They can see the crew and can talk to them, but they cannot send any commands to the Russian segments" an unnamed source told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti at the time, though it seems the interruption was short-lived as backup systems kicked in.

The fallback, routing comms though America, seems to have worked effectively and the incident won't change the scheduled return of half the ISS crew next week (19 November) who'll be replaced a month later - returning the ISS to its full complement of six.

"The crew trains for this and it's a normal routine to work without communication," the Russian head of human space flight, Sergei Krikalyev, told the ITAR-TASS news agency. ®

Bootnote

*The only British astronaut, Major Tim Peake, has yet to fly in space. As and when he does, however, it will be on a mission to the ISS so we think this subhead is justifiable.

Related stories

• Crack Army pilot to be first PROPER British astronaut IN SPAAAACE (20 May 2013)
• Russians: Decision on diva Sarah Brightman's space trip in early 2013 (23 November 2012)
• Space station 'nauts in successful plonkdown to wrap Expedition 33 (19 November 2012)
• 'Bundle' signals from SPACE seize control of small car in Germany (9 November 2012)
• Beep! NASA here, a 400 tonne spacecraft is about to buzz your house (5 November 2012)