Progress M-22M cargo carrier docks with ISS
BAIKONUR. Feb 6 (Interfax) - Russia's Progress M-22M resupply ship, which lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carried by a Soyuz-U launch vehicle, has made a successful automatic rendezvous with the International Space Station's (ISS) Pirs docking module, the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) has reported.
"Docking with the station proceeded normally and at the designated time," it said.
The Progress M-22M reached the ISS following a fast-track six-hour voyage. This technique, where a spacecraft orbits the Earth only four times after launch, was first tested in August 2012 by the Progress M-16M spaceship, which was dumped in the Pacific Ocean in February 2013. Prior to that, it had taken all resupply ships 48 hours to reach the ISS.
The Kurs-NA automated rendezvous system was tested during the Progress M-21M cargo carrier's flight to the orbiting outpost in late November 2013. However, something went wrong, and the ISS crew had to use manual procedures to complete the resupply ship's docking with the station.
The first trial of the Kurs-NA system in outer space was carried out on July 24, 2012. The Progress M-15 cargo carrier equipped with this new system was supposed to undock from ISS and dock with it once again. The first attempt to do so ended in failure when the resupply ship's equipment issued an accident warning alert at a distance of some 15 kilometers from the station, forcing the Kurs-NA rendezvous system to send the spaceship to as far as 165 kilometers away from the ISS.
The second attempt to dock the Progress M-15M with the ISS was made four days later and was successful.
Specialists blamed an equipment malfunction for the first failed attempt.
Kurs-NA is an upgraded version of an older automatic docking system. The new system features lighter, more accurate analogue signal processing circuits and a smaller external antenna. The new version also requires less power to operate.
The Progress M-22M has delivered approximately 2.4 tonnes of supplies to the ISS, including fuel, scientific equipment, oxygen, water, as well as clothes, food, parcels and presents from relatives for the crewmembers. The cargo also includes fresh vegetables and fruit, as well as candies and other sweets sent by psychologists and relatives to the crewmembers.
Russians Oleg Kotov, Sergei Ryazansky and Mikhail Tyurin, NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio, as well as Koichi Wakata from Japan are currently working onboard the ISS.
