New Cargo Ship Rockets Toward International Space Station
By Justin Ray
SpaceflightNow.com
posted: 16 June 2005
9:30 p.m. ET
The two-man crew living aboard the International Space Station can look
forward to receiving fresh food, more oxygen and new equipment Saturday
night when an unpiloted resupply ship docks to the orbiting complex.
The Russian-made Progress M-53 freighter was successfully launched into
space at 2309 GMT (7:09 p.m. EDT) Thursday from Baikonur Cosmodrome,
Kazakhstan.
A three-stage Soyuz-U booster propelled the 24-foot long ship on a
two-day, pre-scripted course that culminates with an autonomous docking
to the station's Zvezda service module's rear port around 0044 GMT (8:44
p.m. EDT) Saturday evening. An on-time docking would occur as the two
craft soar 225 miles over Beijing, China.
The Progess spacecraft, known in the station's assembly matrix as
mission 18P, reached its preliminary orbit about nine minutes after
blastoff and separated from the Soyuz rocket's spent third stage.
Onboard commands unfurled communications and navigation antennas and
deployed two power-generating solar arrays that span 35 feet.
A series of precise engine firings over the next two days will guide the
Progress into the station's orbit for the linkup. The Zvezda docking
port was vacated Wednesday when the Progress 17P mission, filled with
garbage and unneeded hardware, pulled away from the station and
re-entered Earth's atmosphere.
The station-bound Progress carries 4,662 pounds of supplies, including
116 Russian items and 75 for NASA packed into the craft's cargo module.
The "dry" cargo amounts to 3,097 pounds.
The refueling module is loaded with 397 pounds of propellant for
transfer into the Russian segment of the station to feed the outpost's
maneuvering thrusters. The fuel is pumped from Progess via connections
in the docking port.
Another hefty portion of the supply vessel's load is 926 pounds of water.
To replenish the station's oxygen supply, the Progress is bringing 242
pounds of pressurized oxygen and 40 additional solid-fuel oxygen
generator cartridges. Ongoing breakdowns of the Russian Elektron
oxygen-producing device on the station has forced the crew to burn two
SFOG "candle" cartridges per day.
Spare parts to assist in Elektron repair efforts are aboard this Progress.
Expedition 11 commander Sergei Krikalev and NASA science officer John
Phillips are two months into their planned half-year mission aboard the
station.
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