MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/. The Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft, where depressurization occurred a week ago, will undock from the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday.
The space freighter will carry some items that are no longer necessary aboard the orbital outpost and need to be disposed of.
The undocking is scheduled for 05:26. The de-orbiting maneuver will begin at 07:03 Moscow time.
A few hours after undocking, the space freighter will burn in the atmosphere, and its fragments will be sunk in non-navigational areas of the Pacific Ocean.
A drop in pressure was detected aboard the Progress MS-21 space freighter, expected to end its mission as part of the International Space Station (ISS) on February 18. The spacecraft has been isolated from the ISS, but the space station’s crew continued their work as normal. Roscosmos said the causes of depressurization were being investigated, and emphasized that it had no effect on either the docking of the Progress MS-22 cargo spacecraft to the ISS or the schedule of space activities aboard the ISS.
CEO Yury Borisov said on February 13 that an emergency commission had been set up, and it would look into all possible causes of the depressurization.
On February 14, the presumed source of the leak was examined with the help of a remote-controlled robotic arm from the US segment of the ISS. After the undocking, cosmonauts on board the ISS will manually turn the spacecraft to take photos of the presumably damaged spot on the outer surface.
The Progress MS is a Russian unmanned spacecraft that was created specifically for servicing orbital stations. It is used to deliver various cargoes (fuel, scientific equipment, oxygen, water, food, etc.) to the ISS, as well as to perform orbit adjustment maneuvers.