News

February 12, 2013.
Transport Cargo Vehicle Progress M-18M docked to the International Space Station

Russian transport cargo vehicle (TCV) Progress M-18M docked to the International Space Station (ISS).

Contact with the docking port on the Pirs compartment of the ISS Russian Segment (RS) occurred at 00:35:21 Moscow Time, six hours after the vehicle injection into orbit, as planned by the nominal flight program.

Approach of TCV to the station, its fly-around, stationkeeping were performed in automatic mode during the first four orbits of the mission. The vehicle docking to the station was completed in the fifth orbit.

The crew of Expedition ISS-34 working on-board the station monitored the rendezvous and docking processes. All dynamic operations were performed under supervision of the Technical Manager for flight tests of manned space complexes, President, General Designer of RSC Energia, V.A. Lopota.

Present at the MCC-M during the final operations of the vehicle rendezvous and docking with the ISS were: representatives of the State Commission, Roscosmos, NASA, subcontractor companies and organizations in the industry, managers and specialists of the Corporation.

The Flight Director is the First Deputy General Designer of RSC Energia, V.A. Soloviev.

According to telemetry data and reports from the ISS crew, the on-board systems of the space station and vehicle operate normally.

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The TCV delivered to the ISS about 2.6 tons of cargo, including 101 kg for the US On-Orbit Segment and 130 kg of US cargo for the Russian cosmonauts.

The ISS RS consists of the Functional Cargo Block Zarya, modules: Service Module Zvezda, Docking compartment Pirs, Mini Research Modules Poisk and Rassvet, spacecraft Soyuz TMA-06M, Soyuz TMA-07M, Progress M-17M and Progress M-18M.

ТCV Progress М-18М docked to module Pirs, from which on February 9, 2013 at 17:15:22 Moscow Time TCV Progress М-16М undocked, which completed its flight on the same day over the sea areas of the World ocean after de-orbit.