In accordance with the flight program of the International Space Station,
today, July 29, 2021, at 13:29:01 UTC, the Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory
Module docked to the nadir docking port of the Zvezda Service Module of the
ISS Russian segment. According to telemetry data and reports from the ISS
crew, the on-board systems of the station and the Nauka module are
functioning normally.
The Nauka multipurpose module was successfully launched into low-earth orbit
on July 21, 2021 with a Proton-M heavy launch vehicle. After separating from
the third stage, the module was acquired by the ground services of the
TsNIIMash Mission Control Center near Moscow (part of Roscosmos), formed the
required orientation, deployed solar panels and radio antennas, and
commenced an eight-day rendezvous program with the station.
At the autonomous rendezvous stage, Chief Operating Control Group
specialists (RSC Energia, part of Roscosmos) performed several firings of
the module's engines to raise and correct the orbit, as well as to enter the
meeting area with the ISS at estimated time. The operations of flying around
the station, hovering, berthing and docking with the Zvezda service module
were carried out under the supervision of the Group specialists and Russian
crew members of the ISS-65 long-term expedition, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg
Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov. This was the first docking since 2010, when the
Rassvet Mini Research Module No. 1 was docked to the station.
Within 1.5 hours after the completion of the docking, the cosmonauts will
perform leak checks of the docking connections and technological
communications. At 15:15 UTC, the Zvezda module transfer chamber hatch is to
be opened with the new Russian module hatch to follow a few minutes later.
After that the crew will enter the habitable area of the
instrument-pressurized compartment. The program of today's work is limited
to the installation of instruments for the analysis and purification of the
atmosphere on board the newly arrived Nauka module.
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