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Russia’s Nauka research module successfully docks with orbital outpost

Earlier, it was reported that Mission Control had found no mechanical faults for the docking of the latest Nauka (Science) multi-purpose laboratory module with the International Space Station
International Space Station NASA
International Space Station
© NASA

KOROLYOV /Moscow Region/, July 29. /TASS/. Russia’s Nauka (Science) multi-purpose laboratory module docked to the nadir port of the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station (ISS), a TASS correspondent reports from Mission Control near Moscow where the docking is being broadcast live.

The latest Russian research module docked in the automatic mode. The docking process was controlled by Mission Control specialists and Russian cosmonauts aboard the space station.

Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos announced on Tuesday that Mission Control had found no mechanical faults for the docking of the latest Nauka (Science) multi-purpose laboratory module with the International Space Station, and this effort required no unscheduled extra-vehicular activity,

A Proton-M launch vehicle with the Nauka multi-purpose laboratory module blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:58 p.m. Moscow time on July 21. The module’s delivery to the ISS docking area took eight days.

As Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin said during the Nauka module’s launch, the ground-based signal reception station in Barnaul temporarily did not receive telemetric data. Roscosmos later specified that the module’s solar panels and antennae opened up. On July 22, Russian telemetry specialists checked the operation of the multi-purpose laboratory module’s onboard equipment. Roscosmos said that the module had test-fired its engines in the normal mode.