News

November 30, 2013
Russian logistics spacecraft Progress M-21M has docked with the International Space Station!

Russian logistics spacecraft Progress M-21M has docked with the International Space Station (ISS).

Rendezvous with the space station, the flyaround maneuver and stationkeeping were performed in automatic mode, while the final approach operations were controlled from onboard the space station by the Russian cosmonaut O Kotov working in the teleoperator control mode (TORU) according to the decision made by the Head of the Lead Operations Control Team (LOCT) - the Flight Director, First Deputy General Designer of RSC Energia V.A. Soloviev. 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 02:30 Moscow Time.

The crew of Expedition 38 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, 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.

 

For reference:

1. The spacecraft delivered to the station about 2.4 tons of cargo. They include: supplies of propellants, oxygen, water, food (including natural form foods), medical equipment, scientific equipment and hardware for the ISS RS systems, on-board documentation, parcels for the crew, video and photographic equipment. Intended for the US segment of the station are 175 kg of cargos.
2. The mission control and the monitoring of the spacecraft and station 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.
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-10M and Soyuz TMA-11M, cargo transportation spacecraft Progress M-20M and Progress M-21M.
4. ISS crew: Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov, Sergei Ryazanskiy, Mikhail Tyurin, US astronauts Michael Hopkins and Richard Mastracchio and a Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata.
5. The mission plan of the logistics spacecraft Progress M-21M included a 4-day free flight prior to the docking with the space station. During that time, flight tests were conducted on a new Kurs-NA radio system for measuring relative motion parameters designed to support the rendezvous and docking of the spacecraft with the station.