News

Progress MS-16 is on the road to the ISS

February 15, 2021

Today, on February 15, 2021 at 07:45:05 Moscow time launch vehicle Soyuz-2.1а carrying the cargo transportation spacecraft Progress MS-16 was successfully launched from Launch Pad No.6 of Area 31 of the Baikonur Launch Site under the International Space Station flight program. According to the telemetry information in 8 minutes 48 seconds a nominal separation of the spacecraft from the launcher upper stage was recorded, the solar arrays and antennas are deployed.

The launch vehicle Soyuz-2.1а successfully injected the Russian spacecraft into a planned orbit. Specialists from the Lead Operational Control Team for ISS Russian Segment of the International Space Station in Korolev proceeded to the flight control.

The parameters of the Progress MS-16 injection orbit:

• Period of revolution — 88.55 min;
• Orbit inclination — 51.67 deg;
• Minimum orbit altitude — 193.06 km;
• Maximum orbit altitude — 241.16 km.

The flight of the Progress MS-16 cargo spacecraft to the ISS will be carried out using a two-day rendezvous capability, the docking to the Pirs module of the Russian Segment is scheduled for February 17, 2021 at 09:20 Moscow time. The final approach is planned to be carried out automatically under control of specialists of the Mission Control Center (forms part of the State Corporation Roscosmos) and Russian ISS-64 Expedition crewmembers, i.e. Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Sergei Kud-Sverchkov.

The new cargo spacecraft is carrying 600 kg of resupply propellant, 420 liters of portable water of the Rodnik system and 40.5 kg of compressed gasses with additional nitrogen supplies, as well as about 1 400 kg of various equipment and materials including hardware for onboard control and life support systems, kits for space experiments, medical monitoring and sanitary and hygienic items, articles of clothing, standard food ratios and fresh products for the crewmembers.

The cargo compartment accommodates a repair and recovery assembly consisting of a set of reinforcing adhesive cover plates intended for temporary sealing of the defects detected in the pressure shell of the transfer chamber of the ISS Zvezda Service Module. Within the implementation of the Russian science and applied research program the spacecraft carries equipment for performing the following science experiments:

• Neurolab kits are intended to conduct a series of medical experiments Pilot-T to study the impact of long-duration space missions on the quality of professional activities of cosmonauts;
• Materials of experiment Aseptic will make it possible to develop sterility provisions while performing biological experiments under spaceflight conditions;
• Device Photobioreactor will be used to study into the feasibility of getting food products and oxygen from algae under microgravity conditions;
• Hardware Cascad will be used as a laboratory to develop efficient methods of biotechnological production of cell cultures under zero-gravity conditions;
• Probes Biodegradation will ensure monitoring the composition of microorganisms in the ISS atmosphere to study their impact on structural materials in space conditions.

Currently, the ISS- 64 Expedition crew consisting of Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, NASA astronauts Kathleen Rubins, Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi are working aboard the International Space Station.