The Baikonur Cosmodrome is undergoing final operations to prepare for the launch of the “Soyuz-2.1a” launch vehicle with the “Progress MS-14” cargo spaceship.
In accordance with the decision of the State Commission today, on April 22, 2020, a space rocket was rolled out from the Assembly and Testing building and installed at the launch pad of the site № 31.
After the operations on verticalization of the service towers, specialists of the enterprises of Roscosmos State Corporation started work on the schedule of the first launch day.
Today autonomous tests of the cargo ship, launch vehicle, launch complex and ground equipment are carried out, then – analysis of the received telemetric information.
On April 25, 2020, a meeting of the State Commission will be held, following which decisions will be made on refueling the rocket with fuel components and launch.
It is scheduled for April 25 at 04:51 (Moscow time), the flight to the International Space Station will be held on the so-called “Ultrafast” two-turn scheme, docking to the “Zvezda” module of the Russian segment will take place preliminary at 08:12 (Moscow time) ± 3 min.
The cargo ship will bring to the International Space Station more than two tons of cargo for various purposes: 650 kg of fuel in the tanks of the refueling system and 46 kg of compressed gases.
In the cargo compartment – 1.35 tons of cargo, including containers with food, medicines, sanitary and hygienic materials for the crew, as well as consumable equipment for the ISS on-board systems, experimental devices and water in the tanks of the “Rodnik” system.