On Friday, June 3, 2022 at 16:02:01 Moscow time, cargo spacecraft Progress MS-20 following just a two-orbit flight docked to the International Space Station. All operations were performed automatically under the direction of specialists from TsNIIMash Mission Control Center, Lead Operational Control Team of S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (form part of the State Corporation Roscosmos) and cosmonauts Oleg Artemiev, Denis Matveev and Sergei Korsakov.
Launch vehicle Soyuz-2.1а under the name of Donbass carrying cargo transportation spacecraft Progress MS-20 lifted off from Site 31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 12:32:16 Moscow time. The launch was performed normally, 529.2 seconds later the spacecraft was injected into a target orbit and laid a course for the ISS.
After completing the interface leak tests, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Artemiev, Denis Matveev and Sergei Korsakov will open the transfer hatches and perform the final operations to remove the docking mechanism, switch over the Progress power supply system to the joint power supply and deactivate the cargo spacecraft. As planned, the spacecraft will stay in space 265 days.
The arrived Progress delivered more than 2.5 tons of cargo and materials, i.e. propellant, water, pressurized nitrogen and various equipment such as onboard life-limited hardware, tools and accessories for extravehicular activities, cables, sensors, medical means and clothing. The spacecraft also carries Russian science experiment kits for investigating human alimentary and immune systems, impact of space flight factors on cosmonaut organism, developing new sterilizing agents, as well as studying the effect of microorganisms on materials’ strength in space.
In addition, the Progress MS accommodates two pairs of super-small spacecraft, YUZGU-55 Nos. 11 and 12, and Tsiolkovsky-Ryazan Nos.1 and 2, which Roscosmos cosmonauts will launch to orbit during their egress into space.
Currently, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Artemiev, Denis Matveev and Sergei Korsakov, and NASA astronauts, Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins, as well as ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti are working aboard the International Space Station.
