Russia on Thursday launched a supply rocket to the International Space Station, one of the rare Russia-U.S. projects kept alive since Russia’s offensive against Ukraine.
A Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrying the Progress MS-26 cargo spaceship blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and reached the designated orbit as planned.
The Russian space corporation, Roscosmos disclosed that the MS-26 lifted off at 06:25 Moscow time reached its designated orbit, separated from the third stage of the rocket.
It also deployed its antennas and solar panels in a normal mode.
The docking of the Progress MS-26 to the Zvezda service module of the Russian segment of the International Space Station is scheduled for Saturday at 09:12 Moscow time.
The cargo ship would deliver 2,518 kg of supplies to the station.
Among the cargo, there were consumables for a new scientific experiment “Fullerene’’ on growing crystals of fullerite, the third crystalline form of carbon, representing a new class of semiconductors.
For a new scientific experiment “Perspective-KM”, a transformable space structure made of polymer composite materials with a shape memory effect was sent on the ship.
The cosmonauts would install the structure on the small research module ‘Poisk’ during a future spacewalk for its deployment and testing.
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The Progress MS-26 also carried equipment for a new scientific experiment “Orbit-MG’’ with the aim of testing technologies.
Technologies used for non-destructive control of the technical condition of sealed shells of piloted space objects of long-term operation.
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