The Russian robot spacecraft Progress MS-16 has been launched on a refueling mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The journey ends with the revolution of one of the compartments in the iconic sky facility.
The spacecraft was reinforced Monday morning by a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, carrying nearly two and a half tons of cargo, including propellant, fresh water, pressurized gases and various equipment and supplies.
Among other things, it will provide a repair kit needed to seal a small crack in the Zvezda (star) module that caused a pressure drop in August last year. The tear was found and sealed with a temporary plaster, but it still needs to be repaired permanently.
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The cargo delivery is unusual in the use of an older, two-day appointment profile with 34 orbits, as opposed to a four-hour journey, which the Russian space agency recently used for both manned and unmanned flights to the ISS.
The Progress will also have a unique final task, namely to pierce the pier module of Pirs (pier). The Russian segment of the ISS is preparing for the long-awaited addition of the MLM Nauka (science), Russia’s future primary research module, which requires some rearrangement.
The Pirs currently occupy the Earth gate of the Zvezda module to which the Nauka must be attached, so it must first be discarded. The switch was initially planned as early as 2013, but the delay of Nauka’s multiple delay has extended the service of the docking module. A hub module called Prichal (mooring) will be launched later this year and connected to the Nauka port, which will be the new docking station for the Russian side of the ISS and a hub for future expansion.
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