Progress M-13M
Encyclopedia
Progress M-13M identified by NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 as Progress 45 or 45P, is a Progress spacecraft which reached the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...

 (ISS) on 2 November 2011. The Progress M-13M spacecraft lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:11 GMT on 30 October, starting off the 45th unmanned Russian space station resupply mission. The spacecraft was manufactured by RKK Energia, and is operated by the Russian Federal Space Agency
Russian Federal Space Agency
The Russian Federal Space Agency , commonly called Roscosmos and abbreviated as FKA and RKA , is the government agency responsible for the Russian space science program and general aerospace research. It was previously the Russian Aviation and Space Agency .Headquarters of Roscosmos are located...

. The Soyuz-U rocket carrying the cargo ship functioned nominally as advertised. Approximately nine minutes into the launch, Progress M-13M reached its planned preliminary orbit.

Launch

The launch of the Progress M-13M spacecraft occurred at 10:11 GMT on 30 October 2011. The launch was the first successful Soyuz booster flight to the Space Station since the 24 August 2011 failure of the Soyuz-U booster carrying the Progress M-12M
Progress M-12M
Progress M-12M , identified by NASA as Progress 44 or 44P, was an unmanned Progress spacecraft that was lost in a launch failure in August 2011, at the start of a mission to resupply the International Space Station. It was the twelfth modernised Progress-M spacecraft to be launched...

 cargo ship. The temperature on the launch day was 39 °F (3.9 °C). Approximately nine minutes following the liftoff, the Progress M-13M spacecraft successfully reached orbit and deployed its solar arrays and navigation antennas. The spacecraft was inserted into a parking low-Earth orbit with 51.65 deg. inclination, 192.98 km minimal altitude, 252.9 km maximum altitude, 88.66 minutes orbital period.

Docking

The Progress M-13M rendezvoused with and dock to the ISS at the Nadir port of the Pirs Docking Compartment 2 November 2011 at 11:41 GMT. The spacecraft followed an unusual three days of free flight instead of the usual two. The Pirs Nadir port was vacated by the Progress M-10M
Progress M-10M
Progress M-10M , identified by NASA as Progress 42 or 42P, is a Progress spacecraft which was launched on 27 April 2011 to resupply the International Space Station. It was the tenth Progress-M 11F615A60 spacecraft to be launched, and has the serial number 410. The spacecraft was manufactured by RKK...

 spacecraft on 29 October 2011, which undocked at 9:04 GMT.

After arriving to the vicinity of the ISS, Progress M-13M began a flyaround maneuver to get lined up with the docking port. It then executed a roll maneuver to properly orient its forward nose probe with the Pirs Docking Compartment. A momentary station keeping hold with about 620 feet (189 m) between the the two spacecrafts allowed Russian flight controllers at the Moscow Mission Control to check the systems before issuing the approval to begin the 11-minute final approach to the ISS. The automated docking system of the Progress M-13M operated flawlessly and the linkup of Progress M-13M to the Space Station's Pirs docking port occurred just before an orbital sunset while the two spacecraft were orbiting 247 miles (397.5 km) above northern China.

Following the on time docking, hooks and latches were engaged a few minutes after to secure the cargo ship to the ISS. Narrating about the event, NASA commentator Rob Navias said "On the 11th anniversary of the arrival of the first residents of the International Space Station, supplies have arrived to fortify the station for the Expedition 29 crew and beyond," on NASA TV. The Expedition 29
Expedition 29
Expedition 29 was the 29th long-duration expedition to the International Space Station . The expedition formally began with the departure from the ISS of the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft at 00:38 UTC on on 16 September 2011...

 crew of Mike Fossum, Sergei Volkov and Satoshi Furukawa
Satoshi Furukawa
is a Japanese surgeon and a JAXA astronaut.-Personal:Furukawa was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. He enjoys baseball, bowling, music and traveling...

 opened the hatches and entered the Progress spacecraft later on the day.

Undocking and decay

Progress M-13M is planned to remain docked to the Space Station for nearly three months. It will undock from Pirs Nadir port on 25 January 2012, releasing the Chibis-M satellite which was produced by the Institute of Space Research Institute and the Lebedev Physical Institute (LPI) prior to de-orbiting. The 40 kg small Chibis-M satellite is designed to study gamma radiation in atmospheric lightning. Previously, other spacecrafts have found that high-altitude thunderstorm are accompanied by powerful pulses of gamma-and X-ray and radio pulses of ultrahigh power.

Cargo

The Progress M-13M spacecraft was packed with 2.9 tons of food, fuel and supplies, including 1653 pounds (749.8 kg) of propellant, 110 pounds (49.9 kg) of oxygen, 926 pounds (420 kg) of water, and 3108 pounds (1,409.8 kg) of maintenance gear, spare parts and hardware for experiments. It also carried two iPads for personal use by the ISS Russian cosmonauts.

Inventory

Total cargo mass delivered: 2648 kg
Item description Mass (kg)
Propellant in the propulsion system tanks for the ISS needs 250
Propellant in the refuelling system tanks 578
Oxygen 50
Water in the Rodnik system tanks 420
Items in the cargo compartment 1350
SOGS gas mixture composition control 15
SVO water supply control 50
SOTR heat exchange control 9
SUBA equipment control 9
SEP electric supply 1
STOR maintenance and repair items 7
Sanitary and hygienic items 125
SIZ Invividual protection items 17
Lighting means 7
Food containers, fresh products 316
Medical equipment, linen, personal hygienic and prophylactics items 143
FGB hardware 11
Rassvet hardware 4
"Chibis-M" microsatellite and equipment for scientific experiments "Tipologiya", "Ginseng-2", "Struktura", "Plasma Crystal-3 plus" 51
Onboard documentation, crew parcel, video and photo equipment 24
A special delivery for Russian crewmembers 138
US Orbital Segment hardware 423
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK