Following a two-day free flight in near-earth orbit to the International
Space Station (ISS), proximity maneuvers, fly-about, stationkeeping
and approach, the Russian logistics vehicle-module Progress M-CO1 successfully
docked to the ISS having delivered a new Russian module, Docking Compartment
Pirs to the Station.
A contact to the nadir port of the Russian Service Module Zvezda occurred
at 05:05 Moscow time, when the Space Station was in the Russian ground
site coverage.
The approach to the Space Station, its fly-about, stationkeeping, berthing
and docking were performed in the automatic mode under control of the
Lead Operational Control Team (LOCT) of the Mission Control Center in
Moscow (MCC-M) and the ISS-3 crew.
The cargo delivered by the vehicle of an overall mass of about 800 kg
incorporated such cargoes as flight equipment of Docking Compartment
Pirs of about 290 kg (cargo boom, external worksite, portable universal
container); science and utilization hardware of about 65 kg including
hardware for performance of space experiments and research Plasma Crystal
– 3, GTS, as well as Andromeda program (to support the Russian-French
flight to be performed in October during the ISS visiting crew mission),
egress equipment of about 285 kg including spacesuit Orlan-M, life support
system equipment of about 130 kg, flight data files.
The Expedition crew consisting of F. Culbertson (ISS-3 Commander), V.
Dezhurov (ISS-3 Pilot and Soyuz TM Commander) and M. Tyurin (RSC Energia
testing cosmonaut, ISS-3 Flight engineer) will have to unload and accommodate
the delivered cargoes on-board the Station, as well as conduct necessary
operations to prepare the Docking Compartment for operation as part
of the ISS.
During the vehicle approach and docking to the ISS the MCC-M was attended
by Yu.P. Semenov, Technical Manager of Russian Manned Space Programs,
General Designer of S.P. Korolev RSC Energia, Academician of the Russian
Academy of Sciences, specialists from RSC Energia and allied space organizations.
The ISS of about 140.5 tons currently operates consisting of space vehicles
Progress M-45, Soyuz-TM-32, Progress M-CO1, Russian Service Module Zvezda,
Functional Cargo Module Zarya, U.S. modules Unity and Destiny. The Station
onboard systems operate in a design mode.
The ISS flight control is provided by MCC-M LOCT (Korolev, Moscow area)
in interaction with the U.S. Mission Control Center in Houston (MCC-H).
According to LOCT specialists data the ISS flies in orbit with the following
parameters: inclination 51.6°, maximum and minimum altitudes 413.5
and 387.9 km respectively, period of revolution of 92.3 min.
