29.04.2021

The space freighter will stay in the orbit for about 24 hours

Russia’s Progress MS-14 spacecraft undocked from the Zvezda module of the International Space Station (ISS) after spending more than one year in the orbit, according to a live broadcast by Roscosmos.

The space freighter will stay in the orbit for about 24 hours. During this period, the Roscosmos team will test its new positioning system, to be used when the spacecraft is deorbited and buried.

At 03:01:28 Moscow time on April 29, the spacecraft’s engines will be switched on for four minutes to perform a deorbit burn. Progress MS-14 is expected to enter dense layers of the atmosphere at 03:34:23 Moscow time. Its fragments will fall in a non-navigational area of the Pacific Ocean.

The Progress MS-14 space freighter was launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at 04:51 Moscow time on April 25, 2020. Its engines were used to perform 10 adjustments of the ISS orbit, including two emergency ones to dodge space junk.

Progress MS-14 set a new record of spaceflight duration for a Russian resupply vehicle. The previous record of 337 days was set by Progress M-17, which spent 337 days in space after delivering cargo to the Mir orbital station in 1993.

Progress-MS is a family of Russian unscrewed spacecraft, designed for resupplying orbital stations. It is used for delivering various cargoes (such as fuel, scientific equipment, oxygen, water and food) to the ISS and for adjusting its orbit.

Quelle: TASS