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Unpiloted Russian Space Station Supply Cargo Craft Arrival Delayed

By  //  April 28, 2015

standing down on Thursday docking

ISS Progress 47 is shown docked at the International Space Station’s Pirs docking compartment prior to its departure Saturday, April 25. Progress 59 will rendezvous and dock with the same Pirs berthing location on Thursday, April 28, 2015. (NASA image)
ISS Progress 47 is shown docked at the International Space Station’s Pirs docking compartment prior to its departure Saturday, April 25. Progress 59 will rendezvous and dock with the same Pirs berthing location on Thursday, April 28, 2015. (NASA image)

KAZAKHSTAN – Carrying more than 6,000 pounds of food, fuel and supplies for the International Space Station crew, the unpiloted ISS Progress 59 cargo craft launched at 3:09 a.m. EDT from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Russian flight controllers initially could not confirm the health of the spacecraft’s systems and deployment of Kurs rendezvous and other navigational antennas.

They selected the backup rendezvous plan with a targeted arrival Thursday for the cargo ship and its supplies for the space station crew. The Progress spacecraft is in a safe preliminary orbit.

The most recent ground pass started at 9:20 a.m. EDT and flight controllers reported no change in the issues with receiving telemetry data from the unmanned craft.

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The Russian flight control team attempted to command the vehicle over four orbits flying over Russian ground sites with no success.

The next series of ground station passes is expected to resume late Tuesday evening. Teams are standing down on the Thursday docking attempt while Russian teams continue to analyze data and develop a troubleshooting plan going forward.

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