14 DAY TRIAL // A Russian unmanned cargo vehicle has finally made its way to the International Space Station, after spending two days tracking the orbital facility down in low-Earth orbit (LEO). The Progress 41 capsule docked to the station at 9:39 pm EST on Saturday, January 29.
The spacecraft, which has automated docking capabilities, was directed towards the Pirs docking compartment, where it was safely secured into place. It is currently awaiting the beginning of the unloading process.
Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka, both Russian flight engineers with Expedition 26, observed the capsule on its approach, as it neared the station using the onboard Kurs automated rendezvous system.
If the need arose, they could have easily gone to manual control. In this case, they would have flown Progress 41 to another docking port, on the Zvezda service module. The two would have used the TORU manual docking system for this maneuver.
The six-astronaut crew of Expedition 26 has a lot of work on its hands, given that the Progress 41 vehicle carried a fairly large payload. The issue is not necessarily that the Russians sent a lot of stuff into space, but that the crew also has another automated transfer vehicle to handle.
The Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV2) arrived on the ISS a few days ago, and astronauts have yet to finish unloading its cargo. If they don't get on it fast enough, they will be overrun with chores soon.
On February 15, the European Space Agency (ESA) will launch its second Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), called Johannes Kepler, which will also deliver tons of cargo to the station.
Preparations at ESA are in full swing. The mission will take off from the Kourou Spaceport, that the organization operates in the French Guyana, in South America, Space Fellowship reports.
This will be followed by the docking of space shuttle Discovery around February 26, which will mark the beginning of more than 10 days of frantic activity, dotted with extravehicular activities (EVA).
Therefore, the six crew members are currently engaged in transferring the cargo on the two spacecraft that already docked to the station in specialized storage compartments.
The Progress 41 capsule alone carried some 1,918 pounds of propellant for the station's thrusters, 110 pounds of oxygen, 926 pounds of water and 3,080 pounds of spare parts and supplies.