August 05, 2007. S.P. Korolev RSC Energia – MCC-M,
Korolev, Moscow region
Following a three-day free flight Russian cargo transport vehicle Progress M-61 docked to the International Space Station (ISS).
The vehicle rendezvous with the station, its fly-about, station-keeping and birthing were performed in the automatic mode. The vehicle came into contact with the docking port of the Russian Module Pirs at 22:40 Moscow time.
The vehicle delivered more than 2.5 tons of cargoes. They encompass oxygen, water and food supplies, propellant, consumables, science hardware and equipment, including 459 kg of equipment for the US Segment.
The ISS performs a near-orbit flight with the following parameters: minimum altitude of 337.0 km, maximum altitude of 356.8 km. The period of revolution around the Earth is 91.3 min.
The rendezvous with the station, its fly-about, and birthing operations were commanded from the Mission Control Center in Moscow (MCC-M) by the lead operational control team (LOCT) working in interaction with the US Mission Control Center in Houston (MCC-H).
During the final rendezvous and docking operations of the vehicle with the station MCC-M was attended by V.A.Grin’, Deputy Chairman of the State Board, A.B.Krasnov, Head of Manned Space Programs Division of the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), V.A.Lopota, President, General Designer of RSC Energia, managers and specialists of the Corporation, representatives of Roscosmos, allied companies and organizations.
The station fly-about and vehicle docking processes were observed by NASA and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
By telemetry data and ISS Expedition 15 crew reports the ISS onboard systems of the station and vehicle operate as designed.
The ISS Expedition 15 crew consisting of Fedor Yurchikhin (RSC Energia test cosmonaut, crew commander), Oleg Kotov (RGNII Yu. Gagarin CTC test cosmonaut), Clayton Anderson (NASA astronaut, flight engineer) keep working under the flight program.
Upon completion of the docking, a press conference was convened with the participation of V.A.Grin’, Deputy Chairman of the State Board, A.B.Krasnov, Head of Manned Space Programs Division of the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), V.A.Lopota, President, General Designer of RSC Energia, N.A.Anfimov, General Director of TSNII of Machine-Building, V.A. Soloviev, Flight Director, Vice-president, Deputy General Designer of RSC Energia, B.I.Motsulev, Deputy Head of MCC-M. The press-conference was led by A.A.Vorobiev, Press Secretary of the Federal Space Agency.
For information:
The Russian Segment of the ISS is made up of the Functional Cargo Module Zarya, Service Module Zvezda, docking compartment-module Pirs, transport vehicles Soyuz TMA-10, Progress M-60 and Progress M-61 cargo transport vehicles. Progress M-59 cargo transport vehicle operating as part of the station on August 1, 2007 was undocked from Pirs module and deorbited into the Pacific Ocean. The unburned vehicle structural elements landed at 23:28.
The US On-Orbit Segment is made up of modules Unity and Destiny, airlock Quest and multi-link truss structure with deployed solar arrays.
  
  
  
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