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Russia’s resupply ship to use two-day scheme to reach orbital outpost

The Progress MS-10 resupply ship will be launched on November 16

MOSCOW, November 8. /TASS/. A Progress MS-10 resupply ship scheduled for its launch on November 16 will arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) two days after the blastoff of a Soyuz-FG carrier rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Central Research Institute of Machine-Building (TsNIImash) said on Thursday.

"The Progress MS-10 resupply ship will be launched at 21:14 Moscow time on November 16. The docking of the Progress MS-10 spacecraft will take place at 22:29 Moscow time on November 18," the institute’s press office said.

The spacecraft will dock to the Zvezda module, the press office said.

This will be the first launch for Soyuz-FG carriers after the October 11 incident.

A Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with a manned Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft blasted off from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome to the International Space Station (ISS) on October 11. On board the spacecraft were Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin (the commander of the Soyuz MS-10) and NASA astronaut Nick Hague.

Following a smooth liftoff, the Soyuz’s booster malfunctioned between the first and second stages of separating, whereupon the crew was forced to abort the flight and switch to ballistic descent. The manned Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft ended up landing safely in the Kazakh steppe. The crew was not hurt. This was the first emergency situation with the launch of a manned spacecraft over the past 35 years.

The incident-probing commission announced on November 1 that the emergency situation occurred after "a nozzle cover on the oxidizer tank failed to open due to the deformation of the separation contact sensor." The sensor was damaged during the assembly of the rocket’s first stage at the Baikonur Cosmodrome.