Russian cargo ship launched to space station 1/25/2012

William Atkins
Friday, 27 January 2012 00:51

Science - Space

The Russians launched its Progress spacecraft to the International Space Station on Wednesday January 25, 2012 (local time at the Kazakhstan launch site), with about 2.9 tons of supplies and equipment onboard for the ISS Expedition 30 crew.

Included in the payload spacecraft were supplies and equipment were 2,050 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of air and oxygen, 926 pounds of water, and 2,778 pounds of supplies, food, spare parts, gifts, and scientific equipment for the six-person crew.

The Soyuz-U booster rocket was launched late Wednesday evening (local time), January 25, 2012, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome (launch complex: LC-1/5) in Kazakhstan.

It was launched at 23:06:40 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on Wednesday, which relates to 6:06:40 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on Thursday (at the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida) and 5:06:40 a.m. Wednesday local time (at Kazakhstan).

Its payload was the Progress M-14M cargo ship loaded with the goods and supplies for the crew of the International Space Station, which is orbiting above the Earth at an altitude of about 225 miles (360 kilometers).

Approximately 529 seconds (8.8 minutes) after launch, the Progress spacecraft separated from the Soyuz rocket, with a scheduled target orbit of 120 miles (193 kilometers) perigee and 171 miles (274 kilometers) apogee, along with 51.66 degrees of inclination.

 

The spacecraft will steadily increase its altitude over the next two days, in its journey to catch up to the International Space Station.

The Progress ship (with ISS flight number: ISS-46P) is scheduled to dock at the space station at around 0008 GMT (5:08 EST), on Saturday, January 28, 2012. It will dock at the Pirs module of the space station.

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