News

August 2, 2012.
Transport Cargo Vehicle Progress M-16M docked to the ISS

Russian cargo transport vehicle (CTV) Progress M-16M docked to the International Space Station (ISS).

A contact of the docking port of Module Pirs of the ISS Russian Segment (RS) occurred at 05:18 Moscow Time six hours after the vehicle injection into orbit as was envisaged by its nominal flight program.

The cargo transport vehicle rendezvous with the Station, its fly-around and stationkeeping were performed in the automatic mode during the first four flight orbits, the vehicle docking to the orbital station was completed in the 5-th orbit.

The ISS-32 Expedition crew working onboard the station controlled the rendezvous and docking processes. All dynamic operations were provided under the control of the Technical Management (Technical Manager - RSC Energia President, General Designer V.A. Lopota).

The flight control and the system status monitoring of the vehicle and the station in the rendezvous and docking phase were provided by Lead Operational Control Team (LOCT) supporting continuous contact with members of the State Committee, managers and specialists of the Corporation, representatives of Roscosmos, allied enterprises and the industry branch at the Baikonur cosmodrome.

The flight director is First Deputy General Designer of RSC Energia V.A. Soloviev.

Based on the data of telemetry information and reports of the ISS crew, the station and the vehicle onboard systems operate in the design modes.

 

For reference:

1. The vehicle delivered more than 2.6 t of cargo to the Station. Among the cargo: the fuel, water, oxygen, air reserves; food products; medical equipment and personal hygiene aids; equipment for the atmospheric control and supply systems of the Station modules, as well as for power and water supply systems, thermal mode; materials and hardware for scientific investigations and experiments, additional equipment for the ISS RS modules, onboard documentation, parcels for the crew, etc. The delivered cargo mass for the USOS is 230 kg.
2. The ISS RS consists of: functional cargo unit Zarya, modules Zvezda, Pirs, Poisk and Rassvet, manned vehicles Soyuz TMA-04M and Soyuz TMA-05M, cargo transport vehicle Progress M-16M.
3. The ISS crew: Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka, Sergei Revin and Yury Malenchenko; U.S. astronauts Joseph Acaba and Sunita Williams, JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.
4. The procedure of the cargo transport vehicle rendezvous and docking to the ISS tested in flights for six hours after injection will allow to improve the spaceflight conditions for the crews significantly.