A Russian cargo ship Progress exploded from Kazakhstan on Sunday evening, on top of a Soyuz amplifier, carrying 2 and a half tons of supplies and equipment to the International Space Station. Under a gloomy and overcast sky, the launch on site 31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome took place at 23:45 EST (10:45 am, local time of the month), when the central stage of the Soyuz 2.1a amplifier and the band amplifiers they lit with an evidence of flaming evacuation. .
Eight minutes and 45 seconds after takeoff, the third stage of the rocket stopped and fell a few seconds later, the solar grids and the cargo ship’s antennas unfolded and were locked in place as planned. .
Roscomos / NASA
If all goes well, the Progress MS-16 / 77P cargo ship will make a 33-orbit automatic encounter with the space station, arriving and closing for docking at the Russian-oriented Pirs module facing Earth on Wednesday at 1:20 am.
On board: 5,424 kilograms of equipment and supplies, including 3,086 kilograms of dry cargo, 1,322 kilograms of propellant, 926 kilograms of water and 89 kilograms of compressed gas.
At the end of this year, Progress will be used to pull the Pirs module away from the station, paving the way for the attachment of a new Russian laboratory module.