First up this week is Progress MS-16, an ISS resupply mission that launched on February 15 at 04:45 UTC from Site 31-6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After a two-day, 34-orbit trip, the uncrewed spacecraft successfully docked to the ISS.

The freighter’s automated rendezvous system failed when the vehicle was about thirty meters from the ISS. Russian cosmonaut Sergei Ryzhikov successfully brought the vehicle in manually using the Teleoperated Mode of Spacecraft Control system.

Progress MS-16 delivered 2,460 kilograms of supplies to the station including 600 kilograms of propellant, 420 liters of water for the Rodnik water reclamation system, 40.5 kilograms of compressed gases with additional reserves of nitrogen, and 1,400 kilograms of various equipment and materials. It also delivered resource equipment for onboard control and life support systems, repair and recovery kits, packages for the Russian space experiments program, medical control means and sanitary-hygienic supplies, clothes, and food rations.

One of the experiments included neuro lab kits to conduct a series of medical experiments to study the impact of long-duration space missions on the quality of professional activities of cosmonauts.

At the end of its mission in July 2021, Progress MS-16 will take the Pirs docking compartment with it to leave room for the arrival of the Nauka module later in 2021. Progress MS-16 will deorbit with the Pirs module attached sending both to a destructive reentry.

More Information

Launch video

Spaceflight Now article