posted 06-28-2010 09:24 AM               

At the Baikonur launch site in Kazakhstan preparations continue for the launch of the Progress M-06M (38P) cargo vehicle supporting the International Space Station.

The Soyuz-U was rolled out from the integration building to the launch pad on June 28.

The resupply vehicle will launch on June 30 at 10:35 a.m. CDT for a planned docking at 11:55 a.m. on July 2.

Credit: Roscosmos

posted 06-30-2010 11:27 AM               

Progress M-06M (38P) launches to the Station

The Progress M-06M (38P) cargo carrier launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday at 10:35 a.m. CDT.

Credit: Roscosmos TV

Scheduled to dock with the International Space Station at 11:58 a.m. Friday, the unmanned Progress is loaded with 1,918 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of oxygen and air, 220 pounds of water and 2,667 pounds of equipment, spare parts and experiment hardware.

The Progress is similar in appearance and some design elements to the Soyuz, which brings crew members to the station, serves as a lifeboat while they are there and returns them to Earth.

The aft module, the instrumentation and propulsion module, is nearly identical. But the second of the three Progress sections is a refueling module, and the third, uppermost as the Progress sits on the launch pad, is a cargo module.

On the Soyuz, the descent module, where the crew is seated on launch and which returns them to Earth, is the middle module and the third is called the orbital module.

posted 07-02-2010 12:09 PM               

Docking aborted: Progress loses telemetry, flies past station

During its final approach to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, Progress M-06M (38P) lost contact with its automated docking system and subsequently drifted beyond the orbiting laboratory.

The view from Progress M-06M, the ISS not in sight. Credit: NASA TV

The unmanned Russian cargo spacecraft had reached its point of terminal approach, where it was expected to begin its flyaround of the station in order to precisely align itself with the docking port at the aft end of the Zvezda service module. At that point, the Progress -- for still unexplained reasons -- lost its telemetry lock on its active Kurs docking system with the comparable passive Kurs system on the ISS. The Kurs systems basically send radio beacons back and forth to one another to measure the range, distance and rate of closure between the two vehicles.

The Progress flew past the station at a safe distance.

The station crew reported seeing the Progress drift beyond their view, as they tried to reestablish telemetry with the spacecraft.

Progress M-06M seen about 3.7 miles away from the ISS. Credit: NASA TV

The docking now aborted, Roscosmos and NASA flight controllers are assessing the problem and determining how to recover the Progress. Russian Mission Control advised the space station crew that another docking attempt would not be made today.

Expedition 24 commander Alexander Skvortsov was in the process of configuring the TORU back-up manual docking system when the Progress lost telemetry. Flight controllers are assessing if there was a connection between the two events.

Originally scheduled to dock with the station at 11:58 a.m. CDT, the Progress is loaded with 1,918 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of oxygen and air, 220 pounds of water and 2,667 pounds of equipment, spare parts and experiment hardware.

posted 07-02-2010 04:39 PM               

Next docking opportunity to come Sunday

Roscosmos and NASA space station program managers will meet the morning of Saturday, July 3, to assess the next docking opportunity, preliminarily identified as approximately 11:17 a.m. CDT on Sunday, July 4.

If approved, Sunday's attempt is expected to again use the Kurs automated docking system that failed on Friday. Should the Progress experience the same telemetry problems, Russia's Mission Control could choose to remotely fly the spacecraft near enough -- within approximately six-tenths of a mile -- to the International Space Station for Expedition 24 commander Alexander Skvortsov to then use the back-up TORU manual system.

Progress M-06M will conduct two engine firings tonight and another tomorrow to be in position for the potential docking on Sunday.

posted 07-03-2010 08:21 PM               

Progress to attempt docking on Sunday

International Space Station (ISS) Program officials from NASA and Roscosmos met Saturday morning and agreed to proceed toward a second docking attempt for the Progress M-06M unmanned resupply vehicle on Sunday, July 4, at approximately 11:10 a.m. CDT. They will meet again Sunday morning to reconfirm the status of the station and spacecraft systems.

The Progress conducted two successful firings of its engines Friday night to put the spacecraft in a parking orbit around 186 miles (300 kilometers) from the station. Another engine firing was conducted on Saturday morning to start the process of returning the spacecraft back to the station for Sunday's docking attempt.

Russian specialists told program officials the cause of Friday's aborted docking was what they termed a "cancel dynamic operations" command that instructed the Progress' computers to fly the vehicle past the station on its final approach for docking, as it is intended to do if the internal guidance system receives conflicting commands or commands that do not comply with its pre-programmed commands.

The Russian flight controllers said the command to cancel was caused by the activation of the TV transmitter for the TORU manual rendezvous system in the Zvezda service module, which interfered with the Kurs automated system. TORU is used to override Kurs, which Progress normally uses for docking, in the event Kurs experiences a problem. The TORU TV system is designed to provide a view of Zvezda's docking target to the station's commander, should he have to operate a joystick to dock Progress manually.

The Russian flight control team has confirmed the Kurs system operated normally and did not fail, as was initially believed. Kurs uses radio beacon signals beamed back and forth between the approaching spacecraft and the station to measure distance between the two vehicles and the rate of closure by Progress to Zvezda.

Russian officials said the TORU system will not be activated Sunday for the second docking attempt as a precautionary measure and expressed full confidence Sunday's docking can be conducted without any further issue.

Overnight, Russian specialists conducted a successful test with both the prime and backup strings of the Kurs automated rendezvous system on both the Progress and Zvezda. Another test of both strings will be conducted Saturday night. A final test of the Kurs system, as is always conducted during the terminal phase of the rendezvous, will be performed about 50 minutes prior to docking when Progress is within 10 miles (15 kilometers) from the station.

In the unlikely event the prime Kurs string of telemetry fails late in the rendezvous sequence on final approach, Kurs' backup string will take over through docking. If the second string should fail, an automatic abort would be triggered, and Progress would immediately halt its approach and back away from the station to a safe distance. Multiple docking attempts could be made if needed.

The Expedition 24 crew members onboard the station were notified by the team in Mission Control in Houston that another docking attempt will be made Sunday. They had an off-duty day Saturday and have adjusted their workday schedule to monitor the docking activities Sunday.

posted 07-04-2010 11:19 AM               

Progress M-06M safely docks at the station

The Progress M-06M (38P) unmanned resupply craft successfully docked to the aft end of the International Space Station's Zvezda service module at 11:17 a.m. CDT Sunday. The flawless docking was executed by the Kurs automated rendezvous system.

The arrival of the Progress delivers 1,918 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of oxygen, 220 pounds of water and 2,667 pounds of spare parts, experiments and other supplies to the station. It launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 30.

An attempted docking on Friday, July 2, was aborted when telemetry between the Progress and the ISS was lost about 25 minutes before the planned berthing.

posted 09-01-2010 03:31 PM               

The ISS Progress 38 [M-06M] cargo craft, loaded with trash and other items for disposal, undocked from the aft end of the station's Zvezda service module at 7:22 a.m. EDT Tuesday [Aug. 31]. Russian flight controllers will conduct thruster tests with the Progress to gather engineering data before sending it to a fiery descent Monday over the Pacific Ocean.

Progress 38's departure clears the aft port of Zvezda for the arrival of the next Russian resupply vehicle, ISS Progress 39, which will launch Sept. 8 at 7:11 a.m. and dock Sept. 10 at 8:40 a.m., delivering 2.5 tons of food, fuel and supplies for the Expedition 24 crew.