A Progress supply ship completed a two-day trip to the International Space Station early Wednesday, successfully led by cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov using a remote control console inside the station after an automated meeting system got moments in front of the dock.
The Progress MS-16 cargo vessel docked at the Pirs cargo hold to deliver cargo at 1:26 a.m. EST (0626 GMT) before being unloaded with the module later this year to clear the way for the arrival of a new one. Russian Research Laboratory.
Ryzhikov, commander of the station’s expedition 64 crew of seven, watched the final approach of the spacecraft, ready to take over a manual flight control system in case of a problem with the Course radar-guided automatic encounter system of the Progress cargo ship. The Course system failed when the supply ship moved less than 20 meters from the space station, prompting the veteran cosmonaut to activate the TORU manual flight control system within the complex.
Using controls in the Zvezda service module, Ryzhikov led the Progress MS-16 spacecraft to dock at Pirs, wrapping the cargo ship’s voyage to the space station after a launch late Sunday (US time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on top of a Soyuz 2.1a rocket.
The cargo mission is the 77th launch of a Progress cargo ship to the International Space Station since 2000. The previous Progress cargo ship, Progress MS-15, sailed from the space station on 9 February and made a devastating entry into the atmosphere. to get rid of garbage and clear the way for the arrival of fresh cargo delivery.
According to the Russian space agency Roscosmos, the Progress MS-16 delivered approximately 2,424 kilograms of cargo and supplies for the space station and its crew of seven people.
The cargo contains about 1486 kilograms of dry cargo packed in the compartment under pressure from the Progress spacecraft. There is also 600 kilograms of propellant in the space station’s Zvezda control module propulsion system, along with 420 kilograms of fresh water and £ 9.5 (40.5 kilograms) of gases under pressure to supplement the space station’s breathing system. atmosphere.
The Progress MS-16 spacecraft also has equipment to detect and resolve cosmonaut leaks on the space station, plus Russian biomedical experiments and a research charge to investigate the acquisition of food and oxygen from algae in microgravity, Roscosmos said. .
The supply ship will remain at the space station until July, when the Progress will leave according to plan with the Pirs landing site behind. The Progress MS-16, along with the unused Pirs module, returns itself to the atmosphere to burn up at the end of its mission.
The Pirs module has served as a mooring gate and an airlock for cosmonauts on space travel since 2001. A similar module called Poisk serves a similar function and will stay with the space station.
Removal of the Pirs module clears a landing port on the Zvezda service module, the central hub of the Russian space station’s segment, for the arrival of the long-delayed Nauka laboratory later this year following the launch of a heavy-lift Proton -rocket. The Nauka laboratory module is the largest addition to the Russian segment of the station since 2000, when Zvezda itself was introduced.
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