The Russian Progress 21 (M-56) re-supply ship has docked with the International Space Station (ISS) at 1:41pm ET, bringing over 2.5 tons of supplies to the outpost.
NASASpaceflight.com covered the docking as a live event – with live updates and images. Free videos of the Progress 21 flyaround the ISS, plus docking, are available on the link below. <—**New stock in-store now. Show your support for manned space flight and support this site at the same time**
**LIVE EVENT PAGES**
**VIDEO OF PROGRESS FLYAROUND AND DOCKING** (Video section is FREE, but you need to sign up as a member of the forum (also free) to enter the video section of the site. We only use your e-mail to send you your password. It will not be used for spam etc.)
Preview
Carrying supplies for Russian Cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and NASA Astronaut Jeff Williams – who are less than a month into their half year stay on the station – Progress is a vital lifeline for the ISS.The Progress ship launched on Monday from the Baikonur cosmodrome on a Soyuz-U rocket.
According to yesterday’s ISS On Orbit report, Tuesday’s tasks included the checkout of the Progress’ TORU system – which will be used for the automated docking – by sending commands from the TORU panel at TsUP-Moscow to the onboard system.
Today, the active Progress KURS-A system will be activated for a self-test.
On board the Progress is ‘food, batteries, office supplies, and clothes, plus water, oxygen, air, new spares, etc.’
Space Shuttle 25th Anniversary T-Shirt. Use discount code ‘nasaspaceflight’ when ordering from Countdown Creations & receive 5% off
The crew worked in the Russian segment to prepare it for Progress docking, starting with a space-to-ground conference with specialists to discuss docking specifics including an on-board ‘refresher’ test of the manual backup teleoperator approach/docking system (TORU).
Afterwards, Vinogradov and Williams set up the communications links for covering the docking, then activated the SSC (Station Support Computer) A31p laptop in the FGB and checked out the functionality of the Russian video system in the SM with the Ku-band equipment in the US segment. Later the function of the video downlink was tested and the laptop deactivated, leaving cable connections in place.
Further instructions will be sent to the Progress ship during final approach. TV pictures will be available from 9km distance from the ISS, relayed via the KU band antenna on the ISS.
It will then dock with the aft end port of the Zvezda module.
LIVE UPDATE PAGES