14 DAY TRIAL // Early next week, the International Space Station (ISS) will be teeming with activity, as members of the Expedition 28 crew will manage the undocking of an unmanned cargo capsule, and the docking of another, just a couple of days later.
On Monday, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) Johannes Kepler will separate from the orbital facility, having completed its months-long mission in space.
On Thursday, a cargo capsule designed and built by the Russian Federal Space Agency (RosCosmos) will reach the ISS, and dock to one of the available Russian docking ports. The Progress 43 cargo ship will be delivering new supplies to the station crew.
At this point, the Johannes Kepler is attached to the Russian Zvezda service module port. It has just finished conducting an important maneuver, that boosted the station's orbit by tens of kilometers.
This will ensure that the ISS remains operational and capable of conducting relevant science until well beyond 2020. The maneuver was carried out by firing Kepler's thrusters in a precise sequence.
The spacecraft is now scheduled to undock from the orbital lab at 9:48 am CDT (1448 GMT) on Monday, June 20. A deorbit burn will set it on a destructive course above the Pacific Ocean.
During its mission, the second-ever ATV delivered no less than 7 tons of spare parts, experiments, supplies and personal items for the astronauts of Expedition 27/28. It has been docked to the ISS since February 24, having launched from the Kourou Spaceport on February 16.
A few hours after the ATV departs, RosCosmos will launch the Progress 43 spacecraft, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in the steppes of Kazakhstan. The event will take place at 8:38 pm Baikonur time (1438 GMT), and will be transmitted live by NASA TV.
The capsule will spend a couple of days catching up to the ISS in orbit. It is scheduled to rendezvous and dock with the space facility on Thursday, June 23, at around 11 am CDT (1600 GMT). It carries about three tons of cargo.
Three weeks from now, the ISS will be set abuzz again, as space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to arrive around July 10. The orbiter will launch on its final flight on July 8, from the NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC), in Florida.