News

April 25, 2013.
Progress M-19M is going to dock with the station

Russian logistics spacecraft Progress M-19M, after having been inserted into a parking orbit on April 24, continues its free flight towards the International Space Station (ISS).

The onboard systems of the spacecraft operate normally, ensuring successful execution of the mission plan for the distant portion of the autonomous rendezvous with the ISS, including maneuvers to bring the spacecraft into its designated aiming point relative to the space station, which is the starting point for proximity operations.

By now, the spacecraft propulsion system has performed two successful burns, which have established the phasing orbit for rendezvous with the ISS, and preparations are under way for a third burn to correct the spacecraft orbital parameters in such a way as to bring it to its designated aiming point.

One of the antennas in the onboard rendezvous system Kurs, which failed to deploy after the spacecraft separated from the last stage of the launch vehicle, is intended for automatic control during maneuvers in the proximity of the station. This antenna is not used during the distant portion of the rendezvous.

Specialists of the Lead Operations Control Team working at the Mission Control Center near Moscow in cooperation with specialists from RSC Energia and its subcontractors are controlling the spacecraft mission and drawing up the plan of proximity operations, including maneuvering, fly-around, stationkeeping, final approach and docking with the space station. There are plans to implement a backup automatic rendezvous and docking mode, which does not use data from this antenna in the control loop.

The spacecraft is scheduled to dock to a free docking port on the Zvezda Service Module of the ISS Russian Segment on April 26, 2013 at 16:26 Moscow Time.