Roscosmos announced that the Soyuz-2.1a rocket, which will send the Progress MS-26 cargo ship to the International Space Station, will take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on the morning of February 15. writes about this TASS.
Nine minutes after launch, the rocket will place the ship into low Earth orbit, after which the Progress will separate from the third stage and begin an independent flight toward the station. According to the plan, the truck is expected to approach the ISS on February 17 at 09:12 Moscow time. The ship will stay in space for a total of 180 days.
Progress MS-26 docks at the Zvezda service module of the Russian section of the station. For this reason, the Progress MS-24 ship, which set off from the station on the morning of February 13 and sank in a closed area of the Pacific Ocean, released its docking port.
The truck will carry more than 2.5 tons of cargo to the ISS, including apparatus and equipment for station systems, packaging for scientific experiments, clothing for astronauts, food, medical and sanitary products, as well as 580 kilograms of fuel for refueling the station. 420 kilograms of drinking water and 40 kilograms of nitrogen.
The cargo also includes consumables for the new scientific experiment “Fullerene” to be carried out in the “Science” laboratory module. The experiment aims to grow fullerite crystals, the third crystal form of carbon, representing a new class of semiconductors.
The ship will also carry equipment for the new scientific experiment “Perspective-KM”. Cosmonauts will install a transformable space structure made of polymer composite materials with a shape memory effect on the Poisk small research module during a future spacewalk for its deployment and testing.
Additionally, Progress MS-26 will have equipment for the new scientific experiment Orbita-MG. This experiment aims to create a monitoring system that will detect cracks and other leaks in the ISS housing.
Russian scientists before was created Vodka-powered space engines.