14 DAY TRIAL // From March to July, the International Space Station will be bogged down by significant space traffic. A total of six spacecraft will make their way to the orbital outpost, if all goes according to plan. Yet another docking procedure is scheduled to occur on September 3.
The Japanese, Europeans and Russians, plus two American companies, are all scheduled to deliver either cargo or astronauts to the space station, so things will be pretty hectic for the six astronauts currently in space.
The first vehicle to launch to the ISS is the third Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-3) built by the European Space Agency. The unmanned cargo spacecraft is called Edoardo Amaldi, and it is scheduled to take off aboard an Ariane V rocket tomorrow, March 23.
The mission will deliver supplies and personal effects to the six astronauts in space. It will launch from the Kourou Spaceport, in French Guiana, South America, but with a couple of weeks of delay.
It will be followed by the Russian-built Progress 47 resupply capsule, which will take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, on April 20. The mission is being led by the Russian Federal Space Agency (RosCosmos) as part of its participation in the ISS project.
Hawthorne, California-based Space Exploration Technologies Incorporated (SpaceX) will attempt to launch the first private resupply cargo vehicle to the ISS on April 30, aiming for a May 3 docking date. The success of this flight will largely determine the success of the private space industry as a whole.
This mission will be followed by the launch of the Soyuz TMA-04M spacecraft, which will deliver two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut to the station, as part of the standard crew rotation schedule. This flight is at least a couple of months overdue, Space reports.
The Soyuz TMA-05M manned capsule will be the next to arrive at the station, after launching from Baikonur on July 15. It will carry astronauts from Russia, the United States and Japan, who will be a part of Expedition 32.
According to an announcement made yesterday, March 21, by officials at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the organization will launch the H-II Transfer Vehicle Kounotori 3 (HTV3) resupply vessel to the orbital lab on July 21. The vehicle will take off from the Tanegashima Space Center.
The last spacecraft to fly to the station by September is Orbital Sciences Corporation's Cygnus. The vehicle will be the second, privately-built capsule to try and connect to the ISS, following Dragon's attempt. OSC aims for a September 1 launch date, and a September 6 docking date.