Russia's Progress MS-33 resupply ship manually docks with ISS

MOSCOW. March 24 (Interfax) - The Progress MS-33 resupply ship with an approach system antenna, which failed to unfold after the launch, has manually docked with the International Space Station (ISS), Roscosmos said in a stream.

The ship docked with the Poisk module of the ISS Russian segment. Russian cosmonaut Sergei Kud-Sverchkov conducted the remote docking from the ISS.

A Soyuz-2.1a rocket coupled with Progress MS-33 was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 3 p.m. on March 22. Roscosmos said later that one of the two antennas of the Kurs approach system failed to unfold after the ship reached orbit. The antenna allows for automatic docking of the spacecraft with the ISS, it said.

The ship brought over 2.5 tonnes of cargo, including more than 1.2 tonnes of dry cargo, 828 kilograms of station fuel, 420 kilograms of drinking water, and 50 kilograms of oxygen for the station atmosphere. It also delivered equipment for the Solntse-Teraherz experiment. The radio telescope is designed to watch the Sun in the previously unstudied terahertz range of electromagnetic radiation. Cosmonauts will install the equipment during a spacewalk.

Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, Sergei Mikayev and Andrei Fedyayev, NASA astronauts Christopher Williams, Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Sophie Adenot are currently operating the station.