A few hours ago, the Progress MS-21 spacecraft blasted off atop a Soyuz-2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After about nine minutes it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and was placed on its route. The cargo spacecraft began its resupply mission to the International Space Station also called Progress 82 or 82P. In this mission, the route used is the one that requires about two days.
The Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft is carrying a total of a bit more than 2,500 kilograms (almost 5,600 lbs) of various types of supply including food, water, air, oxygen, propellant, and more such as a series of products for the International Space Station crew, various science experiments, tools, and various hardware. Some CubeSat-class nanosatellites will be deployed by Russian cosmonauts aboard the Station.
A special cargo present on the Progress MS-21 space cargo ship consists of an interface that will serve to connect some large instruments to the Russian Nauka module. After it was connected to the International Space Station on July 29, 2021, its use as an orbital laboratory is still being expanded, and to do that it’s necessary to send into orbit the components needed for the installation of large scientific instruments outside it.
Since 2018, the Russian Progress space freighters have often been launched on an ultra-fast track for a journey that lasts just over three hours covering just 2 orbits. It requires a very precise series of maneuvers and above all the adjustment of the International Space Station’s orbit. That’s done particularly on the occasion of astronaut launches to minimize the time they spend in space. In space freighters’ case, a much longer journey is not a problem, so the Russian space agency Roscosmos can choose the route without worries. In this case, Roscosmos opted for the use of the “classic” route which requires two days of travel for the Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft’s mission in which it covers 34 orbits.
The Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft is scheduled to reach the International Space Station on Friday, around 02.09 UTC. The Progress has an automated docking system, so it will reach the Poisk module on its own.
