KOROLYOV /Moscow Region/, July 6. /TASS/. Russia’s Progress MS-31 space freighter, which was launched from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan on Thursday, has docked to the Poisk module of the International Space Station’s (ISS) Russian segment, a TASS correspondent reported.
The Progress MS-31 space freighter was launched atop a Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket at 10:33 p.m. Moscow time (7:32 p.m. GMT) on July 3 and eight minutes after the liftoff, the resupply ship separated from the carrier rocket’s upper stage to approach the orbital outpost.
The Russian space freighter is expected to stay docked at the ISS for the duration of 167 days.
This is the second launch of the Progress MS space freighter and the third liftoff of the carrier rocket from the Baikonur spaceport this year.
The Progress MS-31 resupply ship has delivered 2,625 kg of cargo to the orbital outpost, including 1,205 kg of apparatus and equipment, clothing, food, medical and hygienic sets for the crew, other dry cargo, 950 kg of refueling propellant for the space station, 420 liters of potable water for cosmonauts and 50 kg of nitrogen to replenish the ISS atmosphere, the State Space Corporation Roscosmos reported.
The Progress MS-31 space freighter also delivered stowage for the scientific experiments Biodegradation, Virtual, Fullerene, Biopolymer, Impulse and Mirage, it said.
The Progress MS is a Russian automatic spacecraft designed to service orbital stations, deliver various cargo to the International Space Station (fuel, scientific equipment, oxygen, potable water, food and other supplies) and adjust its orbit.