News

April 26, 2013.
Transport Cargo Vehicle Progress M-19M docked to the International Space Station

Russian logistics spacecraft Progress M-19M, after two days in free flight, docked with the International Space Station (ISS).

Approach to the space station, its fly-around, stationkeeping and docking were performed in the backup automatic mode without using in the control loop the Kurs rendezvous system antenna that had failed to deploy. The initial contact with the docking port on the instrumentation and propulsion compartment of the Zvezda Service Module of the ISS Russian Segment (RS) occurred at 16:25:27 Moscow Time.

The crew of Expedition 35 to ISS working on-board the space station monitored the process of rendezvous and docking. All dynamic operations were performed by specialists of the Lead Operations Control Team working at MCC-M. These operations were directly supervised by the Technical Manager for flight tests of manned space systems, RSC Energia President and General Designer V.A. Lopota.

Present at the Mission Control Center near Moscow (MCC-M) during the final operations of the spacecraft rendezvous and docking with ISS were: representatives of the State Commission for conducting flight tests of manned space systems (the Chairman is the head of Roscosmos V.A. Popovkin), of Roscosmos, foreign space agencies, subcontractor companies and organizations in the industry, managers and specialists of the Corporation.

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

Upon completion of the docking operations, including structural latching to the station, mating of electrical connectors, interface closure, interface sealing and closure of the hooks on the docking ports of the spacecraft and Zvezda module, MCC-M held a press conference for representatives of mass media. Questions from reporters were answered by the head of Roscosmos V.A. Popovkin and President and General Designer of RSC Energia V.A. Lopota, who congratulated all the participants in the ISS program on the successful completion of the docking and thanked the work teams of the companies involved in the spacecraft manufacturing and support who made the reliable completion of the docking possible.

For reference:

1. The spacecraft delivered to the station about 2.4 tons of cargo. They include: supplies of propellants, water, food (including natural form foods), oxygen and air, medical equipment, scientific equipment and hardware of the ISS RS systems, on-board documentation, parcels for the crew, video and photographic equipment. Intended for the US segment of the station are 15 kg of cargos.
2. The mission control and the monitoring of the spacecraft systems status during rendezvous and docking were provided by the Lead Operations Control Team consisting of specialists from S.P. Korolev RSC Energia, MCC-M, and other organizations in the industry. The Flight Director is the RSC Energia First Deputy General Designer V.A. Soloviev.
3. The ISS Russian Segment consists of: Functional and cargo module Zarya, Service Module Zvezda, docking compartment/module Pirs, Mini Research Modules Poisk and Rassvet, manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-07M and Soyuz TMA-08M, cargo transportation spacecraft Progress M-18M and Progress M-19M.
4. Spacecraft Progress M-17M that had been attached to ISS RS till April 15 was undocked from it, switched to free-flight mode and on April 21, having completed the Radar-Progress geophysics experiment, was de-orbited, re-entered the atmosphere and was disposed of over a designated area of the Pacific Ocean.
5. The ISS crew consists of: Russian Cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, Roman Rоmanenko and Alexandr Мisurkin, US astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Christopher Cassidy, and an astronaut of Canadian Space Agency Chris Hadfield (ISS Commander).