News

Progress M-29M logistics spacecraft launched to ISS

October 1, 2015

The cargo transportation spacecraft Progress M-29M developed and built by RSC Energia has been successfully put into a low Earth orbit by a launch vehicle and is now headed towards the International Space Station (ISS).

The launch vehicle Soyuz-U carrying Progress M-29M was launched from Area 1 ("Gagarin's launch pad") of the Baikonur Cosmodrome on October 1 at 19:49:40 Moscow Time. According to telemetry data, the spacecraft separated from the third stage of the launch vehicle normally at the expected time.

In accordance with the ISS program the spacecraft will deliver to the station 2369 kg of various cargos, including 1549 kg of dry cargo, 350 kg of propellant, 420 kg of water and 50 kg of compressed oxygen.

Carried onboar the spacecraft is about a ton of life support equipment for the Service Module (SM) Zvezda, including filters for gas analysis equipment and water supply system, devices for removal of toxic contaminants, hoses, dust collecting units, and other related cargos.

Delivered to the ISS will be onboard documentation packages, video and photographic equipment with batteries and accessories, consumables for instruments for scientific research and experiments, maintenance and repair equipment for onboard systems, equipment to support extravehicular activities.

For the station crew a container is prepared with food rations and a fresh food kit. Sanitary-hygienic support package includes tissues, towels, underwear, shower products, personal hygiene kits and a kit with chewing gum. Medical kits are included to replace medicines with expiring shelf life. The medical kits contain preventive and anti-inflammatory drugs, as well as other medicines and food supplements.

Progress M-29M also carries onboard more than 250 kg of US equipment, in particular, equipment for monitoring the living environment, payloads, elements of the environmental control and life support system.

The cargo spacecraft will use a "quick" six-hour flight profile to rendezvous with the ISS. During its free flight the cargo spacecraft is to perform two burns using its combined propulsion system to establish an intermediate phasing orbit. After that the automatic "quick" docking mode will be run with computation of the 5-burn maneuvering plan. The docking of the cargo spacecraft to the aft docking port on the Propulsion Compartment of the ISS Service Module (SM) Zvezda will be performed in automatic mode on October 2 at 01:54:34 Moscow Time during the 5th daily orbit of the mission, with initial contact taking place outside the radio coverage zone of the Russian ground tracking stations. The ISS crew will be monitoring the docking from onboard the space station.

The logistics spacecraft of the new series Progress M-M developed and built by RSC Energia is an upgraded version of the Progress M spacecraft. It is equipped with new devices for the motion control and navigation system and an improved onboard measurement system. All the devices are built around state-of-the-art electronic components and run the latest software. The upgrade made it possible to reduce the mass of the onboard equipment and thus enhance the capability to deliver payload to orbit.

The spacecraft is designed to deliver to the International Space Station (ISS) dry cargo, propellant components, supplies of water and gas, to perform dynamic operations when attached to the space station using its own engines, as well as to evacuate waste and spent equipment from the station. Additional tasks of the spacecraft include conducting space experiments in free flight and flight developmental testing of onboard systems and their elements.

 

JSC RSC Energia: the leader in the rocket and space industry, and the prime contractor for manned space systems. The Corporation conducts work on the development of unmanned space and rocket systems (launch vehicles and orbital transfer vehicles), and high-technology systems for various non-space applications. Since August 2014, the Corporation is headed by Vladimir Lvovich Solntsev.