News

July 28, 2013.
Automatic cargo vehicle Progress M-20M flying to the ISS

At 00:45:08 Moscow Time (MT), automatic transport cargo vehicle (TCV) Progress M-20M was launched from Baikonur Launch site.

The purpose of the launch is to support further in-orbit operation of the International Space Station (ISS) in accordance with the Russian commitments under the project.

The main objective of the mission is to deliver more than 2.4 tons of various cargoes to the Station, which are required to continue the ISS mission in a manned mode and provide living and working conditions for the crew.

The vehicle was inserted into a parking low-earth orbit with the following parameters: 51.65 deg. inclination, 193.54 km minimal altitude, 240.42 km maximum altitude, 88.56 min. orbital period.

Onboard systems of the vehicle operate normally.

At the launch site, the vehicle prelaunch processing and launch operations were performed under direction of the State Commission. The Commission took decisions to implement prelaunch processing and launch stages based upon the conclusions generated by the Technical management led by RSC Energia President, General Designer V.A. Lopota.

According to telemetry data and reports of the 36th ISS Prime Crew, onboard systems of the space station operate normally.

The cargo vehicle docking to the station is scheduled for July 28 at 06:27 MT.

 

For reference:

1. In its compartments, the vehicle carries into orbit supplies of propellant, water, oxygen, air, food rations, including fresh products; hardware for scientific research and experiments; extra hardware for ISS Russian Segment modules; sanitary equipment, medical supplies and parcels for ISS crew members.
2. Currently working in near-earth orbit under the ISS Program are: Russian cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, Alexandr Misurkin, Fyodor Yurchikhin, European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and US astronauts Christopher Cassidy and Karen Nyberg.