April 26, 2006. Korolev, Moscow
Region.
Russian cargo vehicle Progress M-56 launched on April
24, 2006 from Baikonur cosmodrome after an autonomous two-day
flight in near-earth orbit docked to the International
Space Station (ISS).
The vehicle rendezvous with the ISS Orbital Complex, fly-around and docking were
performed in the automatic mode. The vehicle approached a free axial docking
port of Russian Service Module Zvezda. At 21:41:31 Moscow time the vehicle came
into contact with the docking port.
The ISS Expedition 13 crew (ISS-13) consisting of Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov
(commander, test engineer of RSC Energia) and American astronaut Jeffry Williams
(ISS-13 flight engineer, NASA) monitored the rendezvous and docking processes
onboard the station.
The ISS Orbital Complex of about 192 t performs a near-orbit flight with the
followingparameters: maximum altitude of 363.2 km, minimum altitude of 337.2
km, period of revolution of 91.3 min.
The vehicles and Station modules onboard systems operate in a design mode.
The final flight operations during the vehicle rendezvous and docking to the
station were conducted under control of N.N. Sevastiyanov, President, General
Designer of RSC Energia, General Director for manned space complexes and Technical
Manager for flight tests, who worked at the Mission Control Center in Moscow
(MCC-M).
During these operations MCC-M was attended by V.A. Grin, co-chairmen of the State
Board, representatives of Roscosmos, NASA, ESA, S.P. Korolev RSC Energia, allied
enterprises and organizations participating in the manufacturing, processing
and launch of the Progress vehicles, as well as control of the ISS RS.
The ISS Russian Segment flight control is provided by Lead Operational Control
Team of MCC-M, Korolev, Moscow region. The flight is directed by V.A. Soloviev,
Vice-President, Deputy General Designer of RSC Energia. The control is performed
in interaction with the US Mission Control Center in Houston (MCC-H).
Upon completion of the docking, N.N. Sevastyanov, President of RSC Energia, and
Flight Director V.A. Soloviev answered the questions of journalists of the Russian
and foreign information agencies pointing out the cargo vehicle docking features
and perspectives of ISS program work progress, development of the new generation
Russian transport space system with manned space vehicle Clipper and inter-orbital
tug Parom.
For reference:
Progress M-56 delivered ~ 2.6 tons of various cargoes
to the station. Among them 870 kg of fuel are within
the propulsion system refuelling tanks, 46.5 kg of
gases are in oxygen supply equipment bottles, 1009.4
kg of cargoes are within the pressurized module. The
last includes potable water, food, medical equipment,
personal hygiene means, equipment for American Segment
(253.3 kg), onboard systems and science research, means
of individual and fire protection, flight-data files,
parcels for the crew.
The Russian Segment of ISS is made up of Functional
Cargo Module Zarya, Service Module Zvezda, docking module
Pirs, transport vehicles Soyuz TMA-8, Progress M-55,
Progress M-56.
The US On-Orbit Segment is made up of Modules Unity and
Destiny, airlock Quest and a multi-link truss structure with
deployed solar arrays.
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