14 DAY TRIAL // An updated version of a Russian cargo spacecraft from the Progress series is making its way towards the International Space Station, where it will provide the astronauts with fresh supplies. The Progress 31 unmanned space freighter was reported by NASA officials to have had some troubles with one of the few antennas used by the craft in the docking process, which failed to deploy. The cargo may be operated manually during station approach.
The freighter was launched yesterday, November 26th, at 7:38 a.m. EST (12:38 p.m. GMT) from the Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome spaceport in Central Asia, aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket and is slated to reach the ISS tomorrow. According to NASA officials, the Progress 31 ship carries a payload with a total weight of approximately 2,423 kg (5,342 pounds), out of which 820 kg (1,808 pounds) represents fuel, 210 kg (463 pounds) is water, while equipment, experiment devices and other supplies weigh as much as 1,343 kg (2,963 pounds).
"Everything is working except for one thing. One of the antennas did not deploy, it is still folded," indicated the Russian Mission Control to the station crew, as Space reports. "Make sure you refresh on everything so that everything is clear because the probability of using this mode is very high," they said, although further efforts to deploy the antenna seemed to be successful, as NASA officials showed. If the antenna still proves to be damaged, NASA's space station commander Michael Fincke and Russian flight engineer Yury Lonchakov will be forced to maneuver the spacecraft from the station by remote control.
Progress 31 was tuned up with new computers, whose behavior and features it tests for the following manned Soyuz missions. Meanwhile, ISS astronauts are preparing the necessary payload that will be carried back to Earth by the Endeavour spacecraft. Endeavour is supposed to start its journey back home on Friday and to reach its destination on Sunday at 1:18 p.m. EST (18:18 p.m. GMT).