Valery Ryumin of the Energia company, said one of the three -- a Russian, a US national and the first Spaniard ever to go into space -- mistakenly pressed two buttons at the same time, briefly switching on the Soyuz capsule's rocket motors before the craft had undocked from the space station.
The resulting boost pushed the station 25 degrees away from its normal orientation in space, and scarce rocket fuel had to be used to put it back in the right position, he said, in a report carried by the Ria-Novosti news agency.
The official added that mission control had decided not to inform the astronauts of the error until they were safely back on earth, in order to avoid worrying them.
"We decided not to upset the crew, but will be carrying out a detailed analysis later," said Ryumin. "Someone pressed two buttons at the same time."
He was speaking after the Soyuz craft landed safely in a desert region of Kazakhstan, carrying astronauts Edward Lu of the United States, Yuri Malenchenko of Russia and Pedro Duque of Spain.
A spokesman for the US space agency NASA described the touch-down as "a dream landing."
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