NASA will provide coverage as an uncrewed Russian cargo spacecraft arrives to a new port at the International Space Station this week, and as another Russian freighter launches and docks to the orbiting outpost next week.
The Progress 78 spacecraft will undock from the station at 7:42 p.m. EDT Wednesday, Oct. 20. While there will be no live coverage of the undocking, NASA TV, the agency’s website, and the NASA app will offer live coverage of the rendezvous and redocking beginning at 11:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 21.
After undocking from the station’s Poisk module, Progress 78 will back out to a distance of 120 miles from the space station for a period of just over 24 hours to allow for station keeping. The spacecraft will then make an automated docking at 12:23 a.m. Friday, Oct. 22, to the Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module.
The maneuver will position Progress 78 to conduct leak checks of the Nauka module’s propellant lines before they are used with the new module’s thrusters for orientation control of the station. Progress 78 arrived at the station in July and will depart in late November.
The new Progress 79 cargo craft will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 27 (5 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 28, Baikonur time). Progress 79 launch overage on NASA TV, the agency’s website, and the NASA app will begin at 7:45 p.m.
Loaded with almost three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the station crew, the resupply ship will dock to the aft port of the Zvezda service module at 9:34 p.m. Friday, Oct. 29. Live coverage of docking will begin at 8:45 p.m.
For more than 20 years, humans have lived and worked continuously aboard the International Space Station, advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies, making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. As a global endeavor, 246 people from 19 countries have visited the unique microgravity laboratory that has hosted more than 3,000 research and educational investigations from researchers in 108 countries and areas.
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