SpaceX, Russian cargo ships heading for space station – CBS News

As a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship closed in on the International Space Station early Wednesday, a Russian Soyuz-U rocket making the venerable boosters final flight successfully lifted a Progress supply ship into orbit, three months after an upper stage failure destroyed another station-bound freighter.

Mounted atop a snow-covered launch pad -- the same pad used by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin at the dawn of the Space Age -- the Soyuz-U rocket carrying the Progress MS-05/66P cargo ship thundered to life at 12:58 a.m. EST (11:58 a.m. local time) and climbed away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Streaking through a cold, cloudless sky, the booster arced away to the east, climbing directly into the plane of the space stations orbit. Four liquid-fuel strap-on boosters and the rockets central core stage performed normally, leaving it to the third stage RD-0110 engine to complete the push to orbit.

The most recent previous Progress launch on Dec. 1 ended in failure when the upper stage engine apparently malfunctioned, possibly because of debris sucked into an oxygen turbopump. But it was clear sailing Wednesday and, eight minutes and 46 seconds after liftoff, the cargo ship was released into its planned preliminary orbit.

If all goes well, the Progress will execute an automated approach to the space station, docking at the Earth-facing Pirs module around 3:34 a.m. Friday. On board: 1,763 pounds of propellant, 926 pounds of water, 51 pounds of oxygen and 2,900 pounds of food, crew supplies and other dry goods.

While the Progress was climbing into orbit and setting off after the station, a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship launched Sunday atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center was on final approach to the station.

The Dragon was programmed to approach the outpost from behind and below, pulling up to within about 30 feet around 6 a.m. EST and then standing by so European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, operating the labs robot arm, could lock onto a grapple fixture.

At that point, flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston planned to take over arm operations, pulling the Dragon in for berthing at the Earth-facing port of the forward Harmony module.

Another view of the Progress/Soyuz launch at the snow-covered Baikonur Cosmodrome.

NASA/Roscosmos

Mounted in the capsules pressurized compartment are 3,150 pounds of supplies and equipment, including 580 pounds of crew food and clothing, 842 pounds of spare parts and other vehicle hardware and more than 1,600 pounds of science gear.

Twenty mice also are on board to help researchers learn more about what processes prevent most vertebrates from regrowing lost limbs or tissue. Also on board: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, in an experiment to learn more about how the deadly bacteria mutate to design more effective drugs.

Mounted in the Dragons unpressurized trunk section are another 2,100 pounds of equipment: a $92 million ozone monitoring instrument, a $7 million sensor to monitor lightning strikes and experimental gear designed to help engineers perfect autonomous rendezvous and docking software.

SpaceX plans three more 2017 cargo delivery missions to the station, in April, August and November. Two more Progress missions are on tap, in July and October, along with two flights by Orbital ATKs Cygnus cargo ship in March and October.

The Russians are retiring the Soyuz-U rocket, first launched in 1973, in favor of an upgraded version, the Soyuz 2A.1, that features improved avionics but the same RD-0110 upper stage engine that is used in piloted versions of the rocket.

In the wake of the December failure, the Soyuz-U launched Wednesday was subjected to extensive inspections, a new RD-0110 upper stage engine was installed and cameras were mounted on the rockets hull to document ascent performance -- a first for the workhorse rocket.

The successful flight Wednesday is expected to clear the way for the return of three station fliers and the launch of two more in April.

The Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft is scheduled to land in Kazakhstan on April 10, bringing commander Sergey Ryzhikov, flight engineer Andrey Borisenko and NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough back to Earth after 173 days in space.

Ten days later, on April 20, the Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft will carry veteran cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA rookie Jack Fischer into orbit. They will join Expedition 51 commander Peggy Whitson, Pesquet and Oleg Novitskiy aboard the space station.

Visit link:
SpaceX, Russian cargo ships heading for space station - CBS News