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With the expected loss of the massive upmass capability provided by the Space Shuttle via 2011\u2019s retirement, and an ISS extension to at least 2020, problems with the Progress fleet would be a serious blow to providing the required supplies to enable of crew of six to be sustained on the orbital outpost.<\/p>\n
While SpaceX\u2019s Dragon and Orbital\u2019s Cygnus vehicles are set to join the resupply fleet in a few years via the Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract, each resupply vehicle is only capable of a small fraction of upmass compared to the orbiters.<\/p>\n
For the interim, four more Progress launches are scheduled to head to the ISS over the next 11 months.<\/p>\n
Progress Problem:<\/p>\n
Technology News
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ISS program managers at NASA and Roscosmos met this weekend to determine the cause of Progress\u2019 aborted docking, reviewing real time data \u2013 some of which was revealed via memos outlining the issue on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring 38P approach, Kurs acquisition was unsuccessful. (\u0422\u041e\u0420\u0423 \u2013 TORU) activation was also unsuccessful on the first attempt,\u201d wrote one NASA manager in a status update (L2) to his team. \u201cBased on crew reports, 38P is somewhere between 600m and 2 km away and moving away from the ISS. The crew is going to rerun the (\u0422\u041e\u0420\u0423) procedure and MCC-M (Moscow) is assessing the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/A33.jpg\" "\\"A3\\"")
The modernized rendezvous radar system Kurs entered into service in May 21, 1986 when Soyuz TM-1 was launched unmanned to Russian Mir station. The manned Soyuz and unmanned Progress utilize very similar systems.<\/p>\nThe autonomous approach procedure starts at the range of less than 400 km in the automatic mode by means of Kurs radar rendezvous system, according to the 258 page SoyCOM manual (L2). When the range of 150 meter is reached the spacecraft transfers to the station keeping mode while over the ground tracking\/communication sites.<\/p>\n
At this range the berthing (final approach) procedure is started and monitored by the Mission Control Center via telemetry data, TV and crew reports.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s aborted docking was due a \u201ccancel dynamic operations\u201d command that instructed Progress\u2019 computers to fly the vehicle past the station on its final approach for docking, as it is intended to do if the internal guidance system receives conflicting commands or commands that do not comply with its pre-programmed commands.<\/p>\n
Progress was under control at all times, and there was no threat of the vehicle colliding with the ISS.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on preliminary information received from US personnel in MCC-M, they do have command capability to 38P. They were also able to determine that a command was issued to \u2018terminate dynamic mode\u2019 which aborted the automatic rendezvous,\u201d added another memo (L2).<\/p>\n
\u201cThey do not understand why this command was issued and will be investigating. Another docking attempt will likely not occur for another 48 hours pending their investigation but the on-console team is waiting official word before incorporating another attempt into the plans.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time of the abort, the Progress was below the orbital outpost on a passively-safe trajectory, as is designed in the event of such a contingency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe automated rendezvous began at GMT 183\/14:35:16. Progress Kurs-A and SM Kurs-P systems passed all self-tests and functioned nominally until the time of abort. The automated rendezvous was aborted between the Impulse 4 and Impulse 5 burns, at approximately 16:24; preliminary indications are that the \u2018cancel dynamic operations\u2019 command was unexpectedly issued, and the source of this command is under investigation,\u201d added a third status memo (L2).<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were three other anomalous signatures in the same timeframe, though their relation has not yet been determined: 1) the Progress Display+TV view was unstable on both ISS and the ground. 2) SM Kurs-P signal acquisition was lost and not regained. 3) the ISS crew was unable to establish a TORU link with the Progress<\/p>\n
\u201cThe abort was not an abort burn, but simply deactivation of the Progress Motion Control System. At that time the Progress was below the ISS on a (designed) passively-safe trajectory. Another test of the Progress TORU system was performed by MCC-M on Orbit 35.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/A41.jpg\" "\\"A4\\"")
With the Progress at a safe distance away from the ISS, managers decided the second docking attempt would be made without the use of the TORU \u2013 following confirmation of the issue that caused the abort.<\/p>\n\u201cThe cause of the anomaly was determined to be interference between the Progress TV transmitter and the TORU system, causing loss of the TORU command link between the Progress and ISS, which in turn caused the Progress TORU system to issue the \u201ccancel dynamic operations\u201d command, and in response the Progress Motion Control System (MCS) deactivated,\u201d added a fourth status memo (L2).<\/p>\n
\u201cMCS deactivation includes Kurs-A deactivation, which explains the SM Kurs-P loss of signal acquisition. MCC-M conducted tests of all these systems.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision was made to proceed with docking, with the modification that TORU will remain deactivated to prevent recurrence of the anomaly, even in case of an automated system failure. The planned docking time is GMT 185\/16:17.\u201d<\/p>\n
Progress conducted two successful firings of its engines Friday night to put the craft in a parking orbit around 300 kilometers from the space station. Another engine firing was conducted Saturday morning to start the process of returning the spacecraft back to the station for Sunday\u2019s docking attempt.<\/p>\n
Progress docked at 16:17pm GMT without issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Russian Progress resupply vehicle \u2013 M-06M\/38P \u2013 has succcessfully docked with the International Space Station (ISS) at 16:17pm GMT on Sunday, following an aborted attempt on Friday. Caused by interference between the Progress TV transmitter and the TORU (Telerobotically Operated Rendezvous Unit) system, Progress suffered no issues during the second attempt. ISS Resupply: The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[233,7900],"class_list":["post-40727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-iss","tag-russian"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40727"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40727\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}