After nearly 20 years of service as a docking and airlock port, Russia’s Pierce module left the International Space Station on Monday beneath the clouds from the supply ship Progress, destined to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere devastatingly to pave the way for the arrival of the largest science laboratory. later this week.
The Russian cargo ship Progress MS-16 ejected from the space station at 6:55 a.m. EDT (1055 GMT) on Monday 260 miles (418 kilometers) over northern China.
Instead of leaving the station on its own, the Progress spacecraft retreated from the complex with the Russian Pierce docking compartment, clearing a port on the Zvezda service module that had been occupied since 2001.
penetrate the unit Launched to the space station on September 14, 2001Board a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The modified Progress cargo spacecraft delivered the Pirs module to the station, culminating in a land-facing port dock on the Zvezda Service Module two days after launch.
Since then, the Pirs 52 unit has supported space travel and served as a docking port for the Russian Soyuz and Progress Ferry ships that transport crew and cargo to the space station. The Russian Poisk module, launched in 2009 and similar to Pierce’s design, remains on the space station opposite the Zvezda module to serve as an air lock for future Russian space travel.
Poisk, like Pirs, doubled as a docking port for visiting Russian crew and cargo ships. The Soyuz and Progress spacecraft can also dock with the Russian Rassvet module, the rear port of the Zvezda module, and will be able to connect to the Nauka Science Laboratory which will replace Pirs on the space station this weekend.
American crew and cargo vehicles have their own docking ports at the other end of the space station.
Russia’s Pierce spacecraft separated from the International Space Station at 6:55 a.m. EDT (1055 GMT) over China, evacuating the docking port on the Zvezda service module for the first time since 2001.
The new Naoka Science Laboratory is scheduled to dock in Russia on Thursday.https://t.co/lYliaJtblF pic.twitter.com/w0Ka92aw9H
Space Flight Now 26 July 2021
The Progress MS-16 freighter was the last visiting vehicle to dock with Pirs in February. On June 2, cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov left the space station to prepare the Pierce module for disposal. Their duties included relocating the extendable site attached to the Pirs, and disconnecting the assembly antenna cables from the unit.
The press, which means “pier” in Russian, is about 16 feet (4.9 meters) long and 8.4 feet (2.55 meters) in diameter at its widest point, according to NASA.
With these preparations complete, Russian officials are awaiting the launch of the unit that will replace it at the land-facing port of Zvezda.
Nauka Science Lab, Russia’s long-delayed expansion of the space station, Released last Wednesday From Baikonur on a Proton rocket. After overcoming post-launch issues with the new spacecraft propulsion system and the Kurs automatic encounter radar, Russian mission controllers finally completed the first orbital maneuver with the Nauka main engine over the weekend and verified that the Kurs system was effective for connecting science laboratories. to the space station.
While the ground team worked to address the issue, the Russian manager postponed the departure of the Pirs module from Friday to Monday to get a clearer picture of the state of the new Nauka spacecraft.
The Nauka unit is satisfied that it is en route to the space station on Thursday, and mission controllers in Moscow have given the green light to ease pressure on the docking system linking Pirs with Zvezda in preparation for departure on Monday.
Once docked, the Progress MS-16 spacecraft fired a boost to bring the Pirs module to a safe distance from the space station. It set the stage for a nearly 18-minute deorbit burn at 10:01 am EDT (1401 GMT) Monday to direct the junk-laden Progress spacecraft from the space station and Pirs module into Earth’s atmosphere for a devastating replay. Check-in in less than an hour.
Any debris that survived the scorching heat is expected to fall into the remote South Pacific region at around 10:51 a.m. EDT (1451 GMT), Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said.
With Pierce out, the ground team plans to inspect the ground-facing docking port of the Zvezda module Monday night using the camera on the robotic arm of the Canadian-made space station. A seven-hour video inspection will ensure there is no debris or obstruction to the mooring mechanism, the last of which was used for docking when the Pirs were mounted to the station in 2001.
If the team finds a problem, cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Piotr Dubrov can head outside the space station for a space walk this weekend to clean up the docking system.
The Nauka module will dock with the space station on Thursday at 09:24 EDT (1324 GMT).
After docking with the Nauka module, Russian cosmonauts are planning a series of up to 11 space trips later this year and early next year to equip the new space laboratory component.
The cargo ship Progress carrying the Pierce module from the International Space Station has finished burning to leave the vicinity of the complex.
It set the stage for deorbit burn at 10:01AM EDT (1401 GMT), which was soon followed by a devastating comeback.https://t.co/lYliaJtblF pic.twitter.com/FUNwjggMRT
Space Flight Now 26 July 2021
Once the Nauka is fully operational, it will accommodate the Progress supply ship, Soyuz crew pod and Russia’s new Prichal node module later this year.
Inside Nauka, Russian cosmonauts will install and activate science experiments, prepare new oxygen generation systems for operation, build new toilets, and equip new dormitories for additional Russian crew members on the space station.
The Nauka module, also called the Multipurpose Laboratory Module, carries the European robotic arm, completed 15 years ago, waiting for the opportunity to fly to the space station.
Nauka has a mass of 20.2 metric tons (44,500 lb), which is more than five times the mass of the Pirs mooring chamber. Nauka is about 43 feet (13 meters) long, making it one of the largest units on the International Space Station.
The bus-sized Nauka research module has been in development for more than 20 years, initially as a backup for Russia’s Zarya module, the first component of the space station launched in 1998. Russia said in 2004 that the reserve would be converted to Zarya’s laboratory unit for launch in 2004. year 2007.
But the delay kept the Russian laboratory afloat for years. Engineers at Energia, the prime contractor for Russia’s human spaceflight program, discovered a flaw in the unit’s propulsion system in 2013. The unit was returned to Khrunichev, its manufacturer, for a lengthy repair that delayed the launch of Nauka for several more years.
The Nauka is the first pressurized module to be added to the space station since the arrival of the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module in 2016. The last compact Russian component of any size launched to the space station was the Rassvet docking unit, which was delivered by the NASA spacecraft in 2010.
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