Russian unmanned logistics spacecraft Progress M-53 launched from Baikonur on June 17, 2005, has docked with the International Space Station after two days of free flight in low Earth orbit.
The spacecraft rendezvous with the ISS space station, its fly-around, stationkeeping and approach to the distance of about 120 meters were performed in automated mode, and the final approach was performed in the teleoperator control mode. The spacecraft made its approach to a free axial docking port on the Service Module Zvezda of the ISS. The initial contact occurred at 04:41:32 Moscow Time.
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Russian unmanned logistics spacecraft Progress M-53 launched from Baikonur on June 17, 2005, has docked with the International Space Station (ISS) after two days of free flight in low Earth orbit.
The spacecraft rendezvous with the ISS space station, its fly-around, stationkeeping and approach to the distance of about 120 meters were performed in automated mode, and the final approach was performed in the teleoperator control mode (TORU). The spacecraft made its approach to a free axial docking port on the Service Module Zvezda of the ISS. The initial contact occurred at 04:41:32 Moscow Time.
The crew of the eleventh expedition to ISS (ISS-11) – Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev (Commander, Test-Cosmonaut of RSC Energia) and US astronaut John Phillips (Flight Engineer, NASA astronaut) – were monitoring the rendezvous and docking.
According to a decision made by the Flight Director – vice president and deputy general designer of RSC Energia V.A.Soloviev – the commander of the ISS-11 crew S.Krikalev has performed the final approach in the teleoperator control mode.
Progress M-53 has delivered to the space station about 2.4 tons of various cargoes, including 262 kg of propellant for refueling the space station propulsion system, 111 kg of oxygen, 279 kg of food, 420 kg of potable water,146 kg of hardware for the air and water regeneration system. 217 kg of cargoes are for the US segment of ISS.
ISS-11 crew is to unload the spacecraft and stow the delivered cargoes onboard the space station, and load into it spent materials and equipment. Since February 2003,Russian manned and unmanned transportation spacecraft have been the only means of delivering crews and cargoes to the ISS.
The ISS space station with a mass of about 184.0 metric tons is in a low Earth orbit with the following parameters: maximum altitude of 365.1 km, minimal altitude of 350.5 km; orbital period of 91.4 min.
The Russian segment of the space station currently consists of the Functional Cargo Module (FGB) Zarya, Service Module Zvezda, Docking Module Pirs, transportation spacecraft Soyuz TMA-6 and Progress M-53. The US orbital segment consists of Unity and Destiny modules, Quest airlock and a multi-element truss structure carrying deployed solar arrays. The on-board systems of the spacecraft and space station modules operate as designed.
The mission of the Russian segment is controlled by the Lead Operations Control Team (LOCT) at the Mission Control Center (MCC-M) in Korolev, Moscow region, in cooperation with the US Mission Control Center (MCC-H), Houston.
Present at MCC-M during the docking of the logistics spacecraft with ISS were: N.N. Sevostianov (President, Designer General of S. P. Korolev RSC Energia), representatives of the Russian Federal Space Agency, NASA and RSC Energia, subcontractors and organizations in the industry involved in the manufacturing, processing, and launch of Progress M-53 and controlling of the Russian Segment of the space station.
Upon completion of the docking, President of RSC Energia N.N.Sevostianov and the Flight Director V.A. Soloviev answered questions from journalists of information agencies and TV companies who were present at MCC-M, pointing out the great professional skills shown by S.Krikalev while working in the TORU mode.
