Progress MS-16 resupply ship manually docked following 2 day flight to Station - NASASpaceFlight.com - NASASpaceflight.com

February 10, 2021.

December 29, 2020.

December 17, 2020.

December 16, 2020.

Roscosmos, the Russian owned space corporation, launched the Progress MS-16 resupply mission to the International Space Station right on time from Site No

Unlike most Russian missions to the Station, this flight did not make use of the fast track or super fast track launch-to-docking timeline and is instead performing a two day, 33 orbit rendezvous with the Station before docking on Wednesday, 17 February at approximately 06:26 UTC (01:26 EST) – albeit on manual control via Sergey Ryzhikov after the automated docking suffered an issue 20 meters out

Progress MS-16 is carrying approximately 2,460 kg of cargo, including 600 kg of propellant, 40.5 kg of pressurized gases, 420 kg of drinking water, and approximately 1,400 kg of dry cargo — which includes food and personal items for the crew, Station equipment and science, and a repair kit for the Zvezda service module leak

The encapsulated Progress MS-16 craft was loaded into a specialized rail car and transported from its processing center, Site 254, to the integration and test facility.  There, the spacecraft was integrated with the Soyuz 2.1a rocket the following day

(In the above tweet, workers prepare the Soyuz 2.1a rocket for the Progress MS-16 launch.)

After Progress MS-16 was fully integrated with its Soyuz 2.1a launcher, the entire stack was taken by rail to Site No

The mission had an instantaneous launch window at 04:45:06 UTC on Monday, 15 February (which was 23:45:06 EST on Sunday, 14 February) in order to place Progress into the orbital plane of the Station

The location of the International Space Station at the time of Progress MS-16’s launch

The Blok-I stage then burned for approximately four minutes to insert Soyuz into a 200 km circular orbit, with final burn duration determined by Soyuz 2.1a’s onboard computers based on the final mass of Progress MS-16 and the day-of engine performance across the Soyuz 2.1a

Over the course of following two days, Progress performed a series of burns to raise its orbit up to the current 417 x 422 km orbit of the Station

While most Progress and current Soyuz MS-series cargo and crew vehicles, respectively, have made use of fast track or super fast track rendezvous profiles to the Station, which see the missions arrive between three to six hours after launch, that kind of flight is not always required and the need to adjust the Station’s orbit to accommodate such launch profiles in relation to other missions around it largely determines when such flights can occur

Approaching the Station on Wednesday, 17 February, Progress MS-16’s automated Kurs-NA docking system was set to perform the docking with the Pirs docking compartment (DC-1) at approximately 06:20 UTC (01:20 EST) — with Roscosmos noting a +/- 3 minute caveat to that time as Progress vehicles almost always arrive early or ahead of the planned timeline

Given the unusual automated docking of the Progress MS-15 craft in 2020 when a software issue caused it to drift off course and sway significantly when it was just 3 to 5 meters from the Station, more attention than usual will be paid to the docking system and the ability/need for the Russian crewmembers on Station to take manual control of Progress MS-16 if needed

That proved to be the case with MS-16 suffering a communication issue 20 meters from docking, requiring Sergey Ryzhikov to take manual control

Manual control was also requested during Progress MS-15’s software failure, but the request was denied by Mission Control Moscow.  A successful automated docking took place minutes later

With Progress MS-16 docked to Pirs, the Expedition 63 crew will start unloading its cargo.  The craft is scheduled to remain at the Station until June 2021 when the current plan calls for it to be used to remove Pirs from the ISS and bring it into Earth’s atmosphere for a destructive reentry

This task has been assigned to prior Progress missions, including Progress MS-15, as removing Pirs will clear the nadir port on the Zvezda service module for the long-awaited arrival of Nauka, the multipurpose Russian module for the Station

Lead image: Soyuz 2.1a launches a Progress mission to the Station