Space Station Supply Ship Departs for the Final Time

Space Sta­tion Sup­ply Ship Departs for the Final Time



NASA,ISS,Progress,47,Final,Undocking



The unpilot­ed Russ­ian ISS Progress 47 car­go ship, loaded with trash and sup­plies no longer need­ed by the Expe­di­tion 32 crew, undocked from the Inter­na­tion­al Space Sta­tion for the final time July 30 and maneu­vered to a safe dis­tance from the com­plex for sev­er­al weeks of engi­neer­ing tests. The Progress sep­a­rat­ed from the Pirs Dock­ing Com­part­ment two days after redock­ing to that port to test an upgrad­ed auto­mat­ed ren­dezvous sys­tem. The Progress ini­tial­ly undocked from the sta­tion July 22. An ini­tial attempt to redock the fol­low­ing day was unsuc­cess­ful due to the effect of low tem­per­a­tures in the sys­tem that Russ­ian engi­neers solved to enable the redock­ing to occur on July 28. The Progress will be deor­bit­ed in late August to burn up in Earth­’s atmos­phere over the Pacif­ic Ocean.



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