posted 11-01-2012 08:05 AM               

Progress M-17M makes single-day sprint to the International Space Station

Loaded with almost three tons of supplies, Russia's Progress M-17M unmanned cargo spacecraft launched Wednesday (Oct. 31) at 2:41 a.m. CDT (0741 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, and six hours later, completed an accelerated rendezvous with the International Space Station, docking to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module.

The link-up took place at 8:33 a.m. CDT (1333 GMT) as the two spacecraft orbited 250 miles above Bogota, Columbia.

The fast arrival of the Progress duplicated a single-day launch to docking scenario first executed by the the Progress M-16M (48P) cargo craft in July, and further refined accelerated rendezvous techniques that may be applied to manned Soyuz launches to the station beginning in 2013.

Progress M-17M brought to the station 2.9 tons of supplies, including 2,050 pounds (930 kilograms) of propellant for the station's Russian maneuvering thrusters, 62 pounds (28 kg) of oxygen, 42 pounds (19 kg) of air, 926 (420 kg) pounds of water and 2,738 pounds (1,242 pounds) of spare parts, maintenance items and experiment hardware.

posted 04-15-2013 08:44 AM               

Progress M-17M departs space station

An unpiloted Russian Progress cargo ship departed the International Space Station early Monday (April 15), clearing the way for the arrival of the next Russian space freighter.

The Progress M-17M (49P) resupply ship undocked from the rear port of the station's Zvezda service module at 7:02 a.m. CDT (1202 GMT) after more than five months at the orbiting complex. At the time of undocking the space station was flying 257 statute miles (414 kilometers) over northern China.

From a window in the Russian segment of the station, Russian crew members photographed the automated departure as the cargo craft fired its thrusters to move a safe distance away from the complex.

After several days of thruster firings to help calibrate Russian radar systems on the ground, Progress M-17M will re-enter Earth's atmosphere on Sunday (April 21) and burn up over the Pacific Ocean. Progress resupply ships are not designed to be recovered, so, like its predecessors, Progress M-17M was filled with trash and station discards after its cargo was unloaded.

Progress M-17M delivered nearly three tons of supplies for the space station crew when it docked to the outpost a little less than six hours after launch on Oct. 31. This was the second of three Progress launches in a row that used an abbreviated launch-to-rendezvous schedule instead of following the typical two-day flight profile to reach the station.

Progress M-17M's departure clears the way for the arrival of the Progress M-19M cargo craft. Loaded with more than three tons of food, fuel, supplies and experiment hardware for the six crew members aboard the orbital laboratory, Progress M-19M is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:12 a.m. CDT (1012 GMT; 4:12 p.m. Kazakh time) on April 24 and dock to the station two days later.