Progress cargo ship is ready for fast delivery of Space Station – Spaceflight Now

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A Russian refueling and refueling cargo ship Progress is to be launched Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, in addition to a Soyuz reminder. If all goes as planned, the cargo carrier will dock the International Space Station less than three and a half hours later.

Progress Supply Ship MS-11 contains more than 3.7 tonnes (3.4 tonnes) of propellant, food, material, water and breathable air for the space station and its crew of six, according to a cargo manifest provided by The NASA.

The takeoff is scheduled for Thursday from Launch Pad 31 at Baikonour aboard the Soyuz-2.1a rocket at 11.35 (Paris time). The launch is scheduled just before the space station passes over Baikonur, allowing the Progress ship to quickly catch the complex in orbit over two orbits around the Earth and arrive a few hours after its completion. separation of the third floor of Soyuz.

After leaving Baikonur in the late afternoon, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket will head northeast on a runway aligned with the space station's orbit. The first four thrusters of the Soyuz rocket will consume about two minutes after takeoff, their supply of kerosene propellants and liquid oxygen will be followed by the removal of the aerodynamic fairing of the launcher covering the cargo cargo of Progress about 3 minutes.

The main stage, also called the second stage, will stop his four-jet engine about five minutes after the start of the mission, giving way to an RD-0110 engine on the third stage to propel the cargo cargo craft Progress in a preliminary orbit around the Earth. . The Progress MS-11 tanker will separate from the third floor Soyuz at T + plus 8 minutes and 45 seconds and immediately deploy two wings of solar generators and a set of navigation antennas.

A series of burns to fine-tune the spacecraft's approach into the Progress shuttle will begin at 11:41 am GMT (07:41 am EDT), and the automated rendezvous sequence of the refueling cargo ship will begin at 12:04 am GMT (08:04 am EDT). an hour in the mission.

The Kurs rendezvous radar from the Progress Probe will be activated at 12:04 GMT (8:54 am EDT) and the approaching freighter will move within a 1.6 kilometer radius of the space station at 13:55 GMT (09:55 EDT). Flying autopilot, the cargo carrier will align with the Space Station's Pirs module and begin a final approach at 1414 GMT (10:14 am EDT).

Stowage with the Pirs module is scheduled for 14:25 GMT (10:25 am EDT). If the in-orbit link is on time, the docking will mark the fastest rendezvous with the International Space Station in 20 years of history.

A Progress replenishment mission last July reached the first rendezvous in two orbits, but the flight parameters resulted in a docking approximately three hours and forty minutes after launch. Russian Progress freighters and Soyuz crew pods used to have six- or two-day appointment profiles.

The launch of Baikonur on Thursday is the first of two flights of the Russian Soyuz rocket family in five and a half hours. A separate team is preparing a Soyuz ST-B rocket for take-off at the Space Center in French Guiana, the European spaceport in South America, with four commercial communications satellites at 1630 GMT (12.30).

According to NASA, the Progress supply ship, scheduled for launch Thursday, will carry 1,330 kilograms of propellant, 1,413 kilograms of dry cargo in the pressurized compartment of the aircraft, 90,000 kilograms of water and 104,000 kilograms of water. kilograms. (47 kilograms) of oxygen and air.

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