MRM2 "Poisk" atop Soyuz-U on November 11, 2009

[SiberianTiger]

According to Moscow MCC website, the Instrumentation/Propulsion module of the Progress M-MRM2 has been undocked today in the morning at 00:16 UTC (03:16 Moscow Time) and deorbited following a brief autonomous flight. The time of issuing the deorbit burn command was 04:48:30 UTC (07:48:30 Moscow). The PAO module's debris have deposited over a designated area of the Pacific Ocean.

The MRM2 continues its flight as a part of the Internation Space Station complex.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

NASA TV shot of the Progress M-MIM2/MRM-2 separation:

 

[SiberianTiger]

Downloadable video from the propulsion module's own cam:
mms://193.233.61.171/undocking/progressm-mim2_08122009.wmv

By the way, the background chatter is hilarious! :lol: Translation follows:

MCC-M: Maxim, we are issuing undocking command in five seconds.

Suraev: Copy. O-o-oh! I've heard that. Holy cow, what a bang was that! Phew, a guts shaking one.

Suraev: We have physical separation. Do you see that on the cam, don't ya?

MCC-M. Yes, we do see. It's going nice.

Suraev: It's at least a chance to see how the station looks. Come on, what a bang was that. I didn't expect it to be such.

MCC-M: So it was a kind of acoustic bang, but did you feel it in dynamics?

Suraev: Well, it was like a reasonable shake. But it was audible like quite a boom.

MCC-M: I see.

MCC-M: It's moving away smoothly, doesn't it? Going nice.

Suraev: Yeah, very nice. It's flying low - should it be raining soon?

MCC-M: Quite so.

Suraev: By the way, we are... Jeff is taking pictures through the window. So we'll get a bit of video of it.

MCC-M: Excellent. So in about 4 minutes, we will begin making the initial attitude, be prepared for turning.

Hopefully, Jeff's video will also be available.

 

[tblaxland]

A great video, thanks for the translation! It looked like the station was in a +ZVV/-XLV attitude, I've never seen it like that before.

 

[Arrowstar]

What was that about the rain in the MCC-M dialog?

 

[SiberianTiger]

What was that about the rain in the MCC-M dialog?

It's a joke referring to people's weather wisdom: if swallows are flying high, it's gonna be dry; if swallows are flying low, it's gonna be raining.

Maybe this PAO looked a bit like a swallow with its solar arrays outstretched.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

It looked like the station was in a +ZVV/-XLV attitude, I've never seen it like that before.

That is ISS's standard attitude for all Soyuz/Progress undockings from the nadir or zenith ports.

 

[SiberianTiger]

The best available quality video, a grab from NASA TV
http://www.space-multimedia.nl.eu.o...n-21-progress-m-mim2-undocking&catid=1:latest

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Undocking video from ISS external cameras & Progress M-MIM2 camera.

Look closely at Zarya in the top of the video - it's interesting to observe how the ISS shakes right after undocking.
I guess that would be induced by shockwaves from the detonation of the explosives that shear the attachments between Progress M-MIM2 & MRM-2?

---------- Post added at 09:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:55 PM ----------

Here's some fantastic hi-res photos of the free-flying PAO! :speakcool:

www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-22/ndxpage17.html

 

[SiberianTiger]

Cool, thank you!

 

[Sunhillow]

Great thread! Thank you Tiger :thumbup:

On the youtube page of Poisk takeoff I found a link the the most beautiful rocket launch I ever saw:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-owQSOcuw0"]YouTube- Пуск РН "Союз-У" с ТГК "Прогресс М-03М"[/ame]

It begins getting spectacular around 4:50.

First I thought Пуск (Pusk) might be something similar to Поиск (Poisk) :lol:

 

[SiberianTiger]

First I thought Пуск (Pusk) might be something similar to Поиск (Poisk) :lol:

It's no more related than a Bird to a Bed.

 

[Sunhillow]

It's no more related than a Bird to a Bed.

I think it is ...
at least Poisk did perform a Pusk

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

A video (in Russian) from Maxim Suraev's videoblog showing hatch opening & ingress into MRM-2.

---------- Post added at 05:35 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:47 PM ----------

A great video showing the view out of MRM-2's aft-port facing window (available in HD).

 

[SiberianTiger]

Can't wait for Cupola to arrive.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Can't wait for Cupola to arrive.

Yeah, it will be very cool!! :thumbup:

Tim Creamer promised me he would make an HD video of the view out the windows!

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Here they are!

The first photos showing the view out of MRM-2's Forward-Starboard facing hatch porthole have been sent down! :thumbup:

Hi-res: www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-22/hires/iss022e066318.jpg

Hi-res: www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-22/hires/iss022e066322.jpg

Hi-res: www.spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/station/crew-22/hires/iss022e066336.jpg

 

[SiberianTiger]

Interesting, how transparent and delicate-looking when lit like this those FGB's arrays are.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Interesting, how transparent and delicate-looking when lit like this those FGB's arrays are.

Yes, they are almost like the wings of an insect (Mir was nicknamed "Dragonfly" because of this effect)!

 

[Rocketman527]

NASA would have a hard time getting me away from that window, nevermind the coupola!