NASA Television to Broadcast Launch, Docking of Space Station Cargo Ship
Two Russian spacecraft docked to the International Space Station, (bottom left) the Soyuz MS-09 crew ship and (top left) the Progress 70 cargo craft, are pictured as the orbital complex orbited nearly 262 miles above New Zealand.
Credits: NASA
A Russian Progress cargo ship is scheduled to launch on a three-hour flight to the International Space Station Thursday, April 4. Live coverage of the spacecraft’s launch and arrival will begin at 6:45 a.m. EDT on NASA Television and the agency’s website.
Loaded with three tons of food, fuel and supplies for the residents of the orbiting laboratory, the Progress 72 spacecraft is scheduled to launch at 7:01 a.m. (4:01 p.m. Baikonur time) on a Soyuz booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The Progress will orbit Earth twice then rendezvous with the station, where it will dock to the Pirs docking compartment on the Russian segment of the complex. Live coverage of its arrival and docking will begin at 9:45 a.m., with docking scheduled for 10:25 a.m.
The spacecraft will remain at the orbital outpost until late July.
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 1.04.2018
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Progress MS-11 space freighter mounted atop Soyuz-2.1 rocket at Baikonur The rocket will blast off from Baikonur at 14:01 Moscow time on April 4
Workers of the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan have completed mounting the Progress MS-11 space freighter atop the Soyuz-2.1 carrier rocket to be launched on April 4, Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos said on its Twitter page.
"Assembling the Soyuz-2.1 carrier rocket and the Progress MS-11 cargo spacecraft has been completed. The technical management and the state commission have certified it as ready for transportation and installation at the launch pad," Roscosmos said.
The rocket will blast off from Baikonur at 14:01 Moscow time on April 4 to deliver the Progress MS-11 space freighter to the International Space Station (ISS).
Quelle: TASS
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Update: 2.04.2019
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Russia’s Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with resupply ship installed at Baikonur spaceport A source in the domestic space industry said that the preparations for the rocket’s launch would take one day more than usual at the cosmodrome
A Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with a Progress MS-11 resupply ship has been installed at the launch pad of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russia’s Energia Space Rocket Corporation announced on Monday.
"The Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with the Progress MS-11 space freighter has been taken from the assembly and testing facility and installed at the launch pad of site No. 31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Work has been started under the program of the first launch day," Energia said in a statement.
A source in the domestic space industry told TASS that the preparations for the rocket’s launch would take one day more than usual at the Baikonur Cosmodrome due to the need to carry out additional checks of the launcher’s control system.
The carrier rocket is set to blast off at 2:01 p.m. Moscow time on April 4. The resupply ship will deliver fuel, water and other cargoes to the International Space Station (ISS). The space freighter is set to dock with the orbital outpost 3 hours and 24 minutes after the launch (the so-called ultra-short flight scheme).
Quelle: TASS
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Update: 4.04.2019
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Erfolgreicher Start und Ankunft von Progress cargo ship bei ISS
The Progress cargo spacecraft successfully docked with the @Space_Station at 10:22am ET. Loaded with 3 tons of food, fuel & supplies for the orbiting outpost, the Russian resupply craft will remain docked for ~3 months before departing in July:
Russia’s Progress 72 resupply ship approaches the International Space Station’s Pirs docking compartment today.
Traveling about 254 miles over central China, the unpiloted Russian Progress 72 cargo ship docked at 10:22 a.m. EDT to the Pirs docking compartment on the Russian segment of the complex.
In addition to the arrival of Progress today, the crewmembers aboard the space station are scheduled to greet two other cargo resupply missions this month. Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket with Cygnus cargo spacecraft will launch from Pad 0A of Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore on April 17, followed the next week by the launch of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and cargo Dragon spacecraft from Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and cargo Dragon spacecraft also is scheduled to launch from Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Learn more about station activities by following @space_station and @ISS_Research Twitter as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
Russia’s Progress 72 resupply ship blasts off on time from Kazakhstan to the International Space Station. Credit: Roscosmos
Carrying more than three-and-a-half tons of food, fuel and supplies for the International Space Station crew, the unpiloted Russian Progress 72 cargo spacecraft launched at 7:01 a.m. EDT (4:01 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The resupply ship reached preliminary orbit and deployed its solar arrays and navigational antennas as planned. Following a 2-orbit rendezvous, the Russian cargo craft will dock to the orbiting laboratory at 10:25 a.m. NASA Television coverage of rendezvous and docking will begin at 9:45 a.m.
Progress 72 will remain docked at the station for about three months before departing in July for its deorbit in Earth’s atmosphere.
The Progress is the first of three cargo resupply ships delivering supplies to the six crewmembers aboard the space station this month. Northrop Grumman’s Antares rocket with its Cygnus cargo spacecraft will launch from Pad 0A of Virginia Space’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore on April 17. SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket and cargo Dragon spacecraft is scheduled to launch from Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida the following week.
Quelle: NASA
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Update: 5.04.2019
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US astronaut lauds Russian spaceship's record travel time to ISS The Progress MS-11 reached the ISS to carry out its resupply mission on a two-orbit, super fast-track rendezvous profile with the orbital outpost
NASA Astronaut Nick Hague
TASS, April 5. On Friday, NASA Astronaut Nick Hague hailed the record time the Progress MS-11 resupply ship took to cover the distance to the International Space Station (ISS) calling it impressive.
A Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket with a Progress MS-11 cargo spaceship blasted off from Site No. 31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 2:01 p.m. Moscow time on Thursday. Three hours and 21 minutes later the spaceship docked to the ISS. Commenting on the new record time, Director General of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin compared the flight time to the time it takes to get from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to Moscow.
The Progress MS-11 reached the ISS to carry out its resupply mission on a two-orbit, super fast-track rendezvous profile with the orbital outpost. Before July 2018, Russia’s Progress spaceships blasted off to the ISS either on a two-day schedule (34 rotations around the planet).
Russia first used the super fast-tracked rendezvous with the space station during the launch of the Progress MS-09 resupply ship, which successfully reached the orbital outpost on July 10, 2018 in slightly more than three and a half hours. The next spacecraft, the Progress MS-10, again flew to the ISS on November 16, 2018 using the old two-day scheme, as this was the first launch of a Soyuz-FG carrier rocket after the October 11, 2018 faulty liftoff.
The space freighter has delivered two tonnes of various cargoes to the space station, in particular, fuel, scientific equipment, foodstuffs and medicine.
Quelle: TASS
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Progress cargo freighter docks with space station after fast-track rendezvous
A Soyuz-2.1a rocket lifts off Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with the Progress MS-11 resupply ship. Credit: Energy
A Russian Progress resupply and refueling freighter launched Thursday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on top of a Soyuz booster. The cargo craft completed the fastest rendezvous in the history of the International Space Station program with a successful docking less than three-and-a-half hours later.
The Progress MS-11 supply ship delivered more than 3.7 tons (3.4 metric tons) of propellant, food, hardware, water and breathing air for the space station and its six-person crew, according to a cargo manifest provided by NASA.
Mounted on top of a Soyuz-2.1a rocket, the Progress supply ship lifted off at 1101:35 GMT (7:01:35 a.m. EDT) Thursday from Launch Pad No. 31 at Baikonur. The launch was timed for just 38 seconds before the space station passed over Baikonur, allowing the Progress spacecraft to rapidly catch up to the orbiting complex during two orbits around Earth, arriving within a few hours after separation from the Soyuz third stage.
After its late afternoon blastoff from Baikonur, the Soyuz-2.1a rocket headed northeast on a track aligned with the space station’s orbit. The Soyuz rocket’s four first stage boosters consumed their supply of kerosene and liquid oxygen propellants around two minutes after liftoff, followed by jettison of the launcher’s aerodynamic shroud covering the Progress cargo capsule at about T+plus 3 minutes.
The core stage, also known as the second stage, shut down its four-nozzle engine around five minutes into the mission, giving way to an RD-0110 engine on the third stage to power the Progress cargo craft into a preliminary orbit around Earth. The Progress MS-11 supply ship separated from the Soyuz third stage at T+plus 8 minutes, 45 seconds, and immediately unfurled two power-generating solar array wings and a set of navigation antennas.
At the time of separation from the Soyuz rocket, the Progress cargo craft was located approximately 1,049 miles (1,688 kilometers) behind the space station.
Credit: Energia
A series of burns to fine-tune the Progress spacecraft’s approach to the space station began at 1141 GMT (7:41 a.m. EDT), and the resupply freighter’s automated rendezvous sequence commenced at 1204 GMT (8:04 a.m. EDT), barely one hour into the mission.
The Progress spacecraft’s Kurs rendezvous radar was activated at 1254 GMT (8:54 a.m. EDT), and the approaching cargo ship moved within a mile (1.6 kilometers) of the space station by 1355 GMT (9:55 a.m. EDT). Flying on autopilot, the cargo carrier lined up with the space station’s Pirs module and began its final approach as the vehicles flew 254 miles (408 kilometers) above Earth.
The cargo vehicle linked up with the Pirs docking compartment at 1422 GMT (10:22 a.m. EDT) — 3 hours and 21 minutes after liftoff — concluding the fastest rendezvous with the International Space Station in its 20-year history.
The Progress MS-11 supply ship on final approach to the International Space Station. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now
A Progress resupply mission last July achieved the first two-orbit rendezvous with the station, but the parameters of the flight led to a docking around three hours and 40 minutes after launch. Russian Progress cargo ships and Soyuz crew capsules previously followed six-hour or two-day rendezvous profiles.
Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques tweeted a photo of the launch he took from the space station.
The launch from Baikonur on Thursday was the first of two flights by the Russian Soyuz rocket family in five-and-a-half hours. A separate team is preparing a Soyuz ST-B rocket for liftoff at the Guiana Space Center, the European-run spaceport in South America, with four commercial communications satellites at 1630 GMT (12:30 p.m. EDT).
According to NASA, the Progress supply ship launched Thursday carried 3,375 pounds (1,530 kilograms) of propellant, 3,117 pounds (1,413 kilograms) of dry cargo in the spacecraft’s pressurized compartment, 926 pounds (420 kilograms) of water, and 104 pounds (47 kilograms) of oxygen and air.
The Progress MS-11 cargo mission is the first of three resupply flights taking aim on the space station over the next three weeks.
A Northrop Grumman Cygnus logistics carrier is set for launch on an Antares rocket April 17 from Wallops Island, Virginia, followed by the launch of a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule April 25 aboard a Falcon 9 rocket April 25 from Cape Canaveral.
