Today, on Wednesday, April 9, 2014 Progress M-23M cargo vehicle will be launched to the ISS by Soyuz booster from Baikonur spaceport, – Mission Control Centre representative reports.
In accordance with the preflight preparations schedule space industry operational crews started filling booster with propellant components.
Progress M-23M launch is scheduled for 19.26.27 Moscow time. Cargo vehicle docking with the station will occur in accordance with the short rendezvous scheme 6 hours after the launch , – the spokesman stated.
Progress M-23M will deliver to the station about 2,5 tons of cargo for crew’s life support including propellant, scientific equipment, oxygen, water, clothes, foodstuffs, etc.
Cargo vehicle will also deliver to the ISS parcels and gifts for the crew from their family members. At the present time the ISS crew consists of Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Tyurin, Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev, American astronauts Richard Mastracchio and Steven Swanson and JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata.
The previous cargo vehicle Progress M-22M was undocked from the ISS on April 7. Up to April 18 the vehicle will perform controlled flight during which Radar-Progress experiment will be carried out on its board. On April 18 at 19.43 Moscow time Progress M-22M will be deorbited and sank in the Pacific Ocean.
