Refueling freighter set for launch to space station

BY STEPHEN CLARK
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: July 23, 2014

A Russian Progress supply ship is set for takeoff Wednesday from Kazakhstan with 5,700 pounds of food, fuel and supplies for the six-person crew on the International Space Station.

Launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan is set for 5:44:44 p.m. EDT (2144:44 GMT) Wednesday, or 3:44 a.m. local time at the Central Asia spaceport.

The Progress M-24M spacecraft will blast off on top of a Soyuz-U rocket, which will put the cargo freighter in a precise orbit needed to reach the space station on a expedited rendezvous, culminating with docking to the lab's Pirs module set for 11:30 p.m. EDT (0330 GMT).

A Kurs rendezvous radar aboard the Progress will automatically guide the spaceship toward the Pirs module on the Earth-facing side of the space station's Zvezda service module.

A series of engine burns over the six-hour rendezvous will fine-tune its flight path toward the space station.

The previous Progress cargo craft departed the Pirs docking compartment Monday, carrying trash and other excess equipment away from the space station for a destructive re-entry over the Pacific Ocean set for July 31.

The mission marks the 56th Progress logistics flight to the space station since 2000, giving it the name Progress 56P in the program's matrix of assembly and utilization missions. It is also the 151st flight bound for the space station to launch since the first component of the complex lifted off in November 1998.

The Progress M-24M spacecraft will remain attached to the space station until Oct. 27.

Russian ground crews rolled the Soyuz rocket and Progress spacecraft to the launch pad Tuesday, then erected the launcher vertical before access towers enclosed the booster.

Photo credit: Roscosmos