Russian freighter leaves the station to make way for Progress MS-20
The Progress MS-18 (Progress 79) cargo ship, which was in flight for 216 days supplying the International Space Station, detached from the Zvezda module. On the 3rd, the next Russian space freighter, the Progress-MS-20, will be launched from Baikonur in 2 days.
The SKD propulsion system thruster worked to deorbit at 14:11 Moscow time (9:11 a.m EDT). After four minutes of work, it gave the "spacecraft truck" a braking impulse of 123 m/sec.
At 14h:43m Moscow time, the spacecraft is expected to enter the dense layers of the atmosphere, and at 14h:51m, it falls into the unnavigable part of the Pacific Ocean, 2,700 km from the city of Wellington and 7,200 km from the city of Santiago.
The departure of the MS-18 will give way to the “Progress MS-20”, whose launch and docking with the ISS is scheduled for June 3. With the help of Progress MS-18 engines, nine ISS orbit corrections were performed, including three to avoid space debris.
Earlier, TASS special correspondent, Roskosmos cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, reported that along with Progress, about 1.3 tonnes of used debris and equipment would be removed from the ISS. According to him, the crew tried to load the freighter to the maximum, since the disposal of the next Progress is not foreseen anytime soon, as the Progress MS-19, launched in February, will be docked at the station for a year.
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