Russia successfully launches unmanned cargo vehicle with supplies for ISS

Russia on June 30 successfully launched an unmanned space freighter carrying the essential supplies to the International Space station (ISS) from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. At 2:27 AM Moscow time and 2327 GMT, the Soyuz 2.1 rocket carrying the Progress MS-17 transport cargo ship blasted off from the Kazakh steppes and reached its target orbit, said the Russian space agency Roscosmos in a statement on Wednesday. The unmanned space freighter’s docking with the ISS’ Poisk module is scheduled to take place at 4:02 AM Moscow time or 0102 GMT Friday, July 2 and it will be automatic. 

The spacecraft will spend the next five months in the same location. The progress MS-17 is carrying more than 470 kilograms of fuel, 420 litres of water, 40 kilogrammes of air and oxygen in cylinders along with 1,509 kilograms of various other equipment and materials in the cargo hold. The Russian space programme rose to global recognition for having sent the first man into space in 1961 and launching the first satellite, Sputnik 1, four years prior to that. After this leg of its mission, in October, the Progress capsule will perform an automated undocking and relocation to Russia’s upcoming “Nauka” Multipurpose Laboratory Module which is scheduled to launch to space next month.

The launch:

‘Complex of target loads’ also sent on Soyuz 2.1

The Russian space agency said in a statement that apart from the supplies for ISS, the spacecraft also carries a “complex of target loads” that will be sent to the ISS as part of the implementation of the Russian programme of scientific and applied research and experiments. These include, "Neurolab" for carrying out medical experiments, "Pilot-T" to study the influence of long-term space flight factors on the quality of professional activities of cosmonauts, materials of the "Correction" experiment for the development of effective means of preventing changes in the bone tissue of astronauts in zero gravity.”

Other materials packed in the vehicle are "Biorisk" and "Constant-2" to study the influence of space flight factors on the state of complex protein compounds and the survival of microorganisms, the "Probiovit" experiment is aimed at developing a technology for the production of pharmacological products with immunomodulatory properties under microgravity conditions, and the "UV atmosphere" equipment providing mapping of earth’s night glow.

IMAGE: @roscosmos/Twitter