January 31, 2004. Korolev, Moscow Area.
The Russian cargo transport vehicle Progress M1-11 docked
to the International Space Station (ISS) following a free
flight, rendezvous maneuvers, station fly-around, station-keeping
and berthing.
The Service Module Zvezda axial port contact occurred at
16:13:11 Moscow time, when the station was in the Russian
ground site coverage.
The transport cargo vehicle/tanker delivered about 2.4 tons
of cargoes to the ISS including about 900 kg of propellant
for the Station purposes, oxygen, portable water and food
products, onboard system outfitting and maintenance equipment
for the Russian and US Segments; science hardware, crew
flight-data files, parcels for the crew, hardware for the
Japanese project and upcoming experimental program as part
of the visiting crew for Andre Kuipers, ESA astronaut of
Dutch nationality.
The vehicle transfer hatch was open on January 31, 2004
at 21:00.
The Expedition crew ISS-8 consisting of Russian cosmonaut
Alexander Kaleri (Flight engineer) and US astronaut Michael
Foule (Commander) will have to transfer and accommodate
the delivered cargoes to the Station, deinstall the vehicle
rendezvous system equipment for its subsequent utilization,
as well as load the wasted materials and equipment to the
vehicle.
The approach to the Space Station, its fly-about, stationkeeping,
berthing and docking were performed in the automatic mode
under control of the Lead Operational Control Team (LOCT)
of the Mission Control Center in Moscow (MCC-M) and the
ISS-8 crew.
During the Progress docking to the ISS, the MCC-M was attended
by N.F. Moiseev, and V.A. Grin', co-chairmen of the State
Board, Yu.P. Semenov, Technical Manager of Russian Piloted
Space Programs, General Designer of S.P. Korolev RSC Energia,
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, representatives
and specialists from NASA, RSC Energia and allied space
organizations.
The ISS of about 181.8 tons currently operates consisting
of the Russian Segment, including Functional Cargo Module
Zarya, Service Module Zvezda, docking module-compartment
Pirs, manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-3, cargo vehicle Progress
M1-11; U.S. On-Orbit Segment, including modules Unity and
Destiny, airlock Quest and multi-element truss structure
with deployed solar arrays.
The Station onboard systems operate in design modes.
The ISS flight control is provided by MCC-M LOCT (Korolev,
Moscow area) in interaction with the U.S. Mission Control
Center in Houston (MCC-H). The Flight is directed by pilot-cosmonaut
V.A. Soloviev.
The Space Complex performs a near-orbit flight with the
following parameters: maximum altitude of 390.7 km, minimum
altitude of 364.9 km, period of revolution of 91.8 min.
Upon completion of the docking operations, Yu.P. Semenov,
RSC Energia General Designer informed the journalists present
at MCC-M about the ISS program planning for 2004, stating
that after the US. Shuttle Columbia accident the station
continues its manned flight for a year, that is provided
by the Russian party with regard to Soyuz TMA and Progress
M, Progress M1 flights for crew rotation and delivery of
required cargoes. In so doing, the main load for implementation
of the ISS manned flight in the current year is likely to
be born by the Russian party, and primarily by RSC Energia
as the prime contractor of the Russian Segment of the ISS,
that will be forced to take a more than a billion credit
to support the ISS program-related activities in 2004.
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