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This afternoon, Russia launches a routine cargo ship to the International Space Station – except that the trip of this vehicle is supposed to be the fastest journey of the ISS. After its launch, the spacecraft, known as Progress, is expected to meet with the ISS in just under four hours. It's a quick getaway compared to other cargo and crew spaceships, which can take between six hours and two days to reach the ISS after launch.
However, it is possible that the fast trip does not occur. Progress must be launched at a very specific time to get to the ISS in less than four hours. If not, he will have to take a much longer route to his final destination
space station is a rather complicated process, so it may take some time to get there after takeoff. Spacecraft moving towards the ISS are initially placed in a much lower orbit than where the space station lives, known as the orbit of insertion. They then slowly increase their altitude to dock the laboratory in orbit. To do this, vehicles must turn on their engines at specific times to enter increasingly higher orbits. These spacecraft also have to wait a bit to catch up with the space station's position, since they are moving at different speeds than those of the ISS. Additional adjustments sometimes have to be made to adjust the plane of the spacecraft 's orbit. It is a complex dance of orbits and engine burns that forces both vehicles to find themselves at the same altitude and to make sure they do not collide with each other. not at the same time.
For a Russian spacecraft, such as the Progress or Soyuz-carrier vehicle crew, these appointments can take 34 orbits (two days) to complete. However, Russia has also made shorter meetings of four hours (six hours) with the ISS before. Today's trip aims to advance the satellite in just two orbits, which is only three hours and 48 minutes
This quick appointment is hard to determine, ISS needs to be just. In fact, NASA and Russia had to prepare weeks in advance for this trip by stimulating the ISS 's orbit on June 23rd. This orbital maneuver has now aligned the ISS route with that of the Progress launch site, the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This means that the Progress, which goes up to space on a Soyuz rocket, has to launch at a very precise moment during this alignment. If he misses this deadline, he will have to make a typical two day trip instead.
Russia wanted to try this quick four-hour trip on two progress missions before, but was forced to make longer trips with them. after missing the specific launch times. However, if today 's trip works, then Russia might consider trying this on future Progress flights as well as on Soyuz flights that transport humans to the ISS. In this way, astronauts would not have to wait so long in the cramped confines of the Soyuz before moving inside the vast expanses of life of the ISS.
Today's vehicle is loaded with nearly three tons of ISS members' equipment, and the spacecraft is scheduled to stay at the station until January 2019. The strict time of takeoff today is scheduled for 5:51 pm ET. NASA coverage starts at 5:30 pm ET, so check back then to watch this live mission.
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