Sun, Jun 19, 2005
And Oxygen
International Space
Station Astronauts are breathing easier now that their supply ship
has arrived. The ISS Progress 18 spacecraft docked at 2042 EDT to
the aft port of the Station's Zvezda Service Module.
Progress 18 lifted off Thursday at 1910 EDT from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It reached orbit in less than 10 minutes,
and moments later, automatic commands successfully deployed its
solar arrays and navigational antennas.
The docking was controlled by Station Commander Sergei Kirkalev
using the Telerobotically Operated Rendezvous Unit (TORU). The
automated Kurs docking system was not used because a problem with a
Russian ground station prevented uplinking a command for Progress
to begin the final approach. Krikalev was helped by NASA Science
Officer John Phillips in the manual docking operation, which went
flawlessly. (Photo from Progress approaching ISS)
The ISS Progress 17 cargo ship, which had been at the Station
since March 2nd, was undocked on Wednesday, clearing the aft port
of Zvezda for the new Progress. Filled with trash and discarded
items, Progress 17 was commanded to deorbit by Russian flight
controllers. It re-entered the atmosphere and was incinerated about
four hours after undocking.
The cargo includes food, fuel, air, oxygen, 40 solid fuel oxygen
generation (SFOG) cartridges and parts for the Elektron oxygen
generation system. The air, oxygen and SFOGs will add to the
existing supplies of oxygen aboard the Station. Flight control
teams in Houston and Moscow hope the new parts will enable the crew
to reactivate the Elektron, which has been out of service for
several weeks. A new liquids unit that circulates water to be
broken down into oxygen and hydrogen is to be launched later this
year.
Crewmembers plan to open the Progress hatches Saturday, but
won't begin unloading the cargo until Sunday. Beginning Monday,
they plan to use oxygen from the Progress to replenish the
Station's atmosphere instead of using the SFOGs.
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