Russian Rocket Takes Module to ISS
From SpaceFlightNow
A Soyuz rocket blasted off from the plains of Kazakhstan Tuesday with the International Space Station's newest addition, a module doubling as a docking port for visiting spacecraft and an airlock for spacewalking astronauts.
The 168-foot-tall booster roared away from Launch Pad No. 1 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 1422 GMT (9:22 a.m. EST) Tuesday, or just after nightfall Tuesday night in Kazakhstan.
The venerable Soyuz, flying for the 1,750th time in its various configurations, launched into mostly clear skies, fading from view of ground cameras as it shed four strap-on boosters.
The three-stage rocket delivered its payload, the Poisk docking compartment, to a low-altitude injection orbit about nine minutes after liftoff.
Poisk, which means "search" or "explore" in Russian, is attached to the service module of a Russian Progress resupply ship, providing electrical power and propulsion for the spacecraft during its two-day journey to the space station.
The Progress will fire its engines twice later Tuesday to begin changing its orbit to chase down the complex in space.
More burns are on tap Wednesday and early Thursday before the ship begins its automated final approach to the outpost on a Kurs rendezvous radar system.
The automatic sequence should begin at 1320 GMT (8:20 a.m. EST) Thursday, leading to a docking with the Zvezda service module's space-facing, or zenith, port at 1543 GMT (10:43 a.m. EST).
The new module is the first major Russian addition to the complex since the nearly identical Pirs module was launched in 2001. Pirs is located on Zvezda's Earth-facing port, directly across from the future home of Poisk.
Poisk will give the station a fourth docking port on the Russian segment, allowing for longer stays of future Progress freighters and more opportunities for crew handovers using Soyuz spacecraft
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