Progress Cargo Craft On Its Way to Space Station

STATION NEWS

The unpiloted Progress 17 cargo ship sits atop its Soyuz rocket on the launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Credit: NASA.

Baikonur (SPX) Mar 01, 2005
An unmanned Russian cargo craft lifted off Monday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with about 2.3 tons of supplies and equipment for the International Space Station and its Expedition 10 crew, Commander Leroy Chiao and Flight Engineer Salizhan Sharipov.

ISS Progress 17 launched on time at 2:09 p.m. EST. It reached orbit in less than 10 minutes. Moments later, automatic commands deployed its solar arrays and navigational antennas.

Engine firings are scheduled later Monday to adjust the Progress' orbit for an automated docking March 2 at 3:15 p.m. EST to the aft port of the Station's Zvezda Service Module.

Among the spacecraft's 4,631 pounds of cargo are 386 pounds of propellant, 242 pounds of oxygen and air, and 1,071 pounds of water.

Among equipment aboard the new Progress are cameras and lenses to be used to photograph thermal protection tiles of Discovery as the return to flight mission approaches the station and a new heat exchanger for the U.S. Quest Airlock that should allow resumption of U.S. spacewalks from the Station.

Also aboard are 86 containers of food, an additional 160-day supply for the Station. Spare parts for the Russian Elektron oxygen-producing system and the Vozdukh carbon-dioxide removal system are among the cargo items, as are spare parts and supplies for the Station's toilet.

The Progress 16 cargo ship, which had been at the Station since Christmas Day, was undocked on Sunday, clearing the aft port of Zvezda for the new Progress. Filled with trash and discarded items, Progress 16 will be commanded to deorbit by Russian flight controllers after about 10 days of engineering tests. It will burn up in the Earth's atmosphere soon afterward.

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