After two days of chasing its orbital quarry, a Russian supply
ship successfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) today on a
mission to deliver fresh food, clothes and other supplies to the two astronauts
aboard.
The unmanned cargo ship, dubbed Progress 17, docked smoothly
with the space station's Zvezda service module at 3:10 p.m. EST (2010 GMT) - a
full five minutes earlier than expected - as the two spacecraft passed over the
equator just off the western coast of Africa, NASA officials said.
"Congratulations," Russian flight controllers told the space
station crew as Progress 17 docked in its Zvezda berth at the aft end of the
module.
Just minutes after Progress 17's arrival, the current space
station crew - ISS Expedition 10 commander Leroy Chiao and flight engineer
Salizhan Sharipov - verified that docking latches had grappled the supply ship.
Chiao and Sharipov are expected to complete seal checks
between Progress 17 and the ISS around 5:30 p.m. EST (2230 GMT) and open the
new supply ship for the first time an hour later. They are currently scheduled
to begin what will be a multiple-day unpacking job to empty Progress 17 on
Thursday.
Water,
air and other supplies
Among the 2.3 tons of supplies aboard Progress 17 are 242
pounds (109 kilograms) of oxygen and air, and 1,071 pounds (485 kilograms) of
water. The spacecraft also contains about 86 pounds (39 kilograms) of
propellant used to keep the space station in the proper orbit.
While the amount of consumables currently aboard the ISS are
nowhere near the low levels seen when the last supply ship - Progress 16 - docked
at the station last year, NASA officials said Progress 17's payload also
includes additional supplies of air and food.
Included in the fresh delivery ship are 42 oxygen-generating
candles that can be used to boost the station's air supply and 86 containers
packed with 160 days worth of food to add to the current ISS pantry stores.
When Progress 16 docked at the ISS on Dec. 25, 2004, food
supplies were so low aboard the station that Chiao and Sharipov had altered their
diets
and were prepared to leave
the orbital laboratory empty if the cargo ship failed to reach the station.
Elektron
spare parts and tools
Tucked inside Progress 17 are much needed spare parts for
the ISS, included new components for a Russian-built device that serves as the space
station's prime oxygen generator.
The device, known as the Elektron, separates water into its
component oxygen and hydrogen through the process of electrolysis.
Over the last few months the unit's status
has flip-flopped between operational and non-functional, most recently earlier
today when the Elektron stopped working outright. Some troubleshooting efforts
by Sharipov restored the unit, which has been drawing more power than normal as
part of an earlier fix.
Progress 17 also contains a heat exchanger unit for the
station's U.S. airlock that should allow the area to be used to staged future
spacewalks, as well as new cameras and lenses that will be used the Expedition
10 crew's successors - Expedition 11's Sergei Krikalev and John Phillips - to photograph
the Discovery orbiter's thermal protection tiles during NASA's first shuttle
launch since the 2003 loss of Columbia.
Discovery is currently slated to launch in mid-May.
Using a Soyuz rocket, the Progress 17 spacecraft launched
from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Feb. 28 at about 2:09 p.m. EST (1909
GMT) and reached orbit about 10 minutes later.
The cargo ship is the last delivery scheduled for Expedition
10 before Chiao and Sharipov return to Earth in late April. The two men arrived
at the space station in October 2004 and have completed one of two planned spacewalks
during their mission.
Their final spacewalk, aimed at completing enhancements to
the ISS to ready it for a new European cargo ship, is currently planned for
late March.
Complete
Coverage: ISS Expedition 10
advertisement
