ID :
70177
Mon, 07/13/2009 - 19:20
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/70177
The shortlink copeid
Progress cargo ship to be dumped in Pacific
MOSCOW, July 13 (Itar-Tass) -- The Russian cargo ship Progress, which
tested the operability of a new ISS docking module on Sunday evening, will
be dumped at "the cemetery" of spaceships in the Pacific, spokesman for
the Mission Control Centre in the Moscow region Valery Lyndin told
Itar-Tass.
"The Progress M-02M engines should be switched on at 19.45 Moscow time
on Monday in a slowdown mode, the cargo ship will start quitting the
orbit, and unburned pieces of the freighter will sink in the ocean 46
minutes later," he said.
The second freighter Progress with the digital control system was
undocked from the ISS on June 30 under the control from the Mission
Control Centre and was put on a lower orbit. For 12 days the freighter
filled up with dust was flying in the autonomous mode. "As the freighter
is new and upgraded specialists applied an autonomous flight mode in order
to conduct additional tests of all systems and remove some malfunctions,"
Lyndin said. On July 12, the freighter performed its final mission. The
specialists tested the operation of a new docking module of the station
with the assistance of the freighter. The Russian module MIM-2 is to dock
to the new docking module at the end of the year.
Some fuel was left in the freighter particularly for the autonomous
flight and the experiment.
Before the undocking from the ISS the ISS-20 crew consisting of
Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Roman Romanenko, U.S. astronaut
Michael Barratt, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, Belgian astronaut Frank
De Winne and Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk loaded manually aboard the
freighter about a ton of waste and used equipment, as well as two outdated
spacesuits Orlan-M for space walks.
The practice to destroy the waste on the orbit does not damage the
ecology on the Earth. "A greater part of the cargo ship and waste burns
down in the upper layers of the atmosphere, only separate pieces reach the
Earth," Lyndin said.
The Progress M-02M will be sunken in a special area of the Pacific far
from the navigation routes.
-0-baz
tested the operability of a new ISS docking module on Sunday evening, will
be dumped at "the cemetery" of spaceships in the Pacific, spokesman for
the Mission Control Centre in the Moscow region Valery Lyndin told
Itar-Tass.
"The Progress M-02M engines should be switched on at 19.45 Moscow time
on Monday in a slowdown mode, the cargo ship will start quitting the
orbit, and unburned pieces of the freighter will sink in the ocean 46
minutes later," he said.
The second freighter Progress with the digital control system was
undocked from the ISS on June 30 under the control from the Mission
Control Centre and was put on a lower orbit. For 12 days the freighter
filled up with dust was flying in the autonomous mode. "As the freighter
is new and upgraded specialists applied an autonomous flight mode in order
to conduct additional tests of all systems and remove some malfunctions,"
Lyndin said. On July 12, the freighter performed its final mission. The
specialists tested the operation of a new docking module of the station
with the assistance of the freighter. The Russian module MIM-2 is to dock
to the new docking module at the end of the year.
Some fuel was left in the freighter particularly for the autonomous
flight and the experiment.
Before the undocking from the ISS the ISS-20 crew consisting of
Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Roman Romanenko, U.S. astronaut
Michael Barratt, Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, Belgian astronaut Frank
De Winne and Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk loaded manually aboard the
freighter about a ton of waste and used equipment, as well as two outdated
spacesuits Orlan-M for space walks.
The practice to destroy the waste on the orbit does not damage the
ecology on the Earth. "A greater part of the cargo ship and waste burns
down in the upper layers of the atmosphere, only separate pieces reach the
Earth," Lyndin said.
The Progress M-02M will be sunken in a special area of the Pacific far
from the navigation routes.
-0-baz
