The Expedition 66 crew is getting ready for a pair of cargo missions
launching from Kazakhstan and the United States next week. The Progress and
Cygnus resupply ships will be delivering several tons of food, fuel, and
supplies to replenish the seven astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the
International Space Station.
Russia’s ISS Progress 80 cargo craft will roll out this weekend at
Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome and begin counting down to its lift off on
Feb. 14 at 11:25 p.m. EST. The Progress 80 will orbit the Earth for just
over two days before automatically docking to the Poisk module on Feb. 17 at
2:06 a.m. with nearly three tons of cargo.
Cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov trained today on a computer for
the Progress 80’s arrival. The duo from Roscosmos will be at the controls of
the tele-operated robotic unit, or TORU, in the Zvezda service module
monitoring the cargo craft’s approach and rendezvous. In the unlikely event
the Progress 80 is unable to dock on its own, the cosmonauts will be able to
use the TORU and manually guide the vehicle to a docking on Poisk.
The next cargo craft to visit the station will be Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus
space freighter after it launches from Virginia on Feb. 19 at 12:40 p.m. The
Cygnus will arrive at the station on Feb. 21 where it will be captured with
the Canadarm2 robotic arm at 4:35 a.m. and installed to the Unity module a
few hours later.
NASA astronauts Raja Chari and Kayla Barron joined each other Friday and
reviewed robotics procedures necessary to capture Cygnus after it reaches a
distance of about 10 meters from the station. Chari will be in the cupola
commanding the Canadarm2 to reach out and grapple Cygnus while Barron backs
him up and monitors vehicle systems. Ground controllers will take over
afterward and remotely guide the robotic arm with Cygnus in its grip and
install the U.S. cargo craft to Unity’s Earth-facing port where it will stay
for three months.
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Space & Astrophysics