A Russian house vessel carrying an algae experiment, long-duration medical examinations and 1000’s of kilos of different cargo and provides docked safely on the Worldwide House Station Wednesday (Feb. 17).
The Russian Progress MS-16 cargo ship (also called Progress 77) met up with the orbiting advanced at 1:27 a.m. EST (0627 GMT), when it latched onto the station’s Pirs docking element, in line with an replace from NASA. It had launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sunday (Feb. 14).
Progress 77 introduced 5,424 lbs. (2,460 kg) of provides and cargo to the Expedition 64 crew. The supply included new analysis experiments, crew provides (corresponding to clothes and meals), recent water, nitrogen fuel and propellant for the station’s Zvezda service module propulsion system.
Video: Watch Russia’s Progress 77 cargo ship blast off
Associated: How Russia’s Progress cargo ships work (infographic)
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The spacecraft will even play a historic function when leaving the house station later this yr. NASA stated that when it’s time, Progress won’t undock as earlier missions have; as a substitute, it can stay related to Pirs and pull the whole docking compartment away from the ISS for a deliberate destruction in Earth’s ambiance. Pirs has been in service for nearly 20 years and a substitute is coming quickly, NASA stated.
“Pirs’ departure from the house station is scheduled to happen simply days after the launch of the ‘Nauka’ multipurpose laboratory module on a Proton rocket from Baikonur,” NASA said in a statement. “The multifunctional docking port and analysis facility will dock mechanically to the port vacated by Pirs.”
Associated: Cosmonauts prep space station for module removal on spacewalk out of new airlock
NASA was unable to hold a dwell video of the docking on NASA Tv — which it sometimes tries to do — due to ongoing energy outages in Texas affecting company personnel and related broadcast capabilities, NASA said in an update prior to the event. A extreme winter storm Sunday (Feb. 14) knocked out electrical energy to tens of millions of Texans, with three.6 million houses and companies nonetheless at midnight in subfreezing temperatures as of Tuesday (Feb. 16), CNN said.
Russia’s Progress 77 spacecraft docked on the station’s Pirs docking compartment at present at 1:27am ET delivering 1.1 tons of nitrogen, water and propellant to the station. Extra… https://t.co/S3aIp51Fsg pic.twitter.com/BHezoE9EG9February 17, 2021
A couple of experiments had been bundled into the Progress supply, together with the next ones listed on the Energia website (Energia is the prime developer and contractor of the Russian crewed spaceflight program):
- Neurolab kits for medical experiments meant to look at the impacts of long-duration spaceflight on Russian cosmonauts;
- An experiment known as Aseptic, which can “make it doable to develop sterility provisions whereas performing organic experiments below spaceflight situations”, in line with Energia;
- A photobioreactor which can study how doable it’s to supply meals and oxygen from algae in microgravity, which may be helpful for long-duration house missions;
- known as Cascad, which can examine manufacturing of cell cultures in microgravity;
- An experiment known as Biodegradation, which can study microorganisms within the house station’s ambiance to see how they have an effect on structural supplies.
Observe Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Fb.
