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Cosmonauts turn Progress MS-21 spacecraft to take photographs of damaged areas

After the teleoperation mode was switched off, the spacecraft continued the deorbiting sequence

INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION, February 18. /TASS/. Russian cosmonauts used the teleoperation mode on Saturday to turn the Progress MS-21 space freighter and take photographs of its damaged areas, according to the live broadcast of the undocking.

"Everything was done well, even more than planned," a mission control specialist said during the broadcast.

After the teleoperation mode was switched off, the spacecraft continued the deorbiting sequence.

The Progress MS-21 resupply vehicle undocked from the ISS at 05:26 Moscow time on Saturday. It is carrying some items that are no longer necessary aboard the orbital outpost and need to be disposed of. The spacecraft will fire its engines for a deorbit burn at 07:03 Moscow time. A few hours after the undocking, the space freighter will burn in the atmosphere almost completely, and the remaining fragments will splash down in non-navigational areas of the Pacific Ocean.

A drop in pressure was detected aboard the Progress MS-21 space freighter on February 11. The spacecraft has been isolated from the ISS, and the space station’s crew continued their work as usual. Roscosmos said the causes of depressurization were being investigated.

Roscosmos 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. The images that were obtained are now being studied.