News Progress M-06M Updates

[Orbinaut Pete]

Here's a fantastic time-lapse video of the docking.​

 

[N_Molson]

Good news ! :thumbup:

 

[SiberianTiger]

Very good this time. The MCC-M talk about a possibility of a station's element casting a radio shadow or causing parasite reflection on the Kurs antenna, which prevented docking at the 1st attempt.

 

[Bloodworth]

It sounds to me like the Expedition 24 crew need to play more Orbiter!!! :rofl:

Actually, they already have a primitive version on board - I'd say that's Orbiter 2002! :lol:

Hi-res version.

How's this for a simpit?!

Hi-res version.

---------- Post added at 02:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:22 PM ----------

BBC News: "Russian cargo ship 'under control' official says".

Yeah, it certainly does look like the guy in the bottom pic is playing a flight sim Wouldn't it be hillarious if it was orbiter

 

[SiberianTiger]

Yeah, it certainly does look like the guy in the bottom pic is playing a flight sim Wouldn't it be hillarious if it was orbiter

Um, I think it's the sim for the Shuttle landing they play several times before doing an actual landing.

 

[garyw]

Um, I think it's the sim for the Shuttle landing they play several times before doing an actual landing.

Correct, it's used on the day before entry and takes both the CDR and PLT through the expected approach and landing process, including the HAC & landing. It's designed to give the crew a refresher in what the HUD will display and potentially what visual cues they should expect to see during the approach.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

From Doug Wheelock via Twitter - Progress M-06M approaching SM Aft (in Hi-res)! :yes:

 

[SiberianTiger]

Is that Sicily?

 

[DaveS]

Is that Sicily?

Yes. Right beneath the largest area with clouds is Mt. Etna.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Full English cargo manifest now in from Roscosmos PAO:

Prop in the propulsion system tanks = 877kg
Gas in the oxygen supply system containers = 51kg
Water in the Rodnik system tanks = 300kg
Gas supply system = 1kg
Water supply system = 48kg
Thermal control system = 26kg
Fire protection items = 4kg
Power supply system = 77kg
Protection and fastening items = 5kg
Maintenance and repair equipment = 8kg
Sanitary and hygienic items = 52kg
Food containers, fresh products = 266kg
Medical equipment, linen, personal hygienic and prophylactics items = 42kg
On-board documentation files, crew provisions, video- and photo-equipment = 52kg
FGB-hardware = 77kg
Rassvet hardware 4kg
Poisk hardware = 2kg
Crew parcels for Russian crew members = 50kg
TV-camera = 10kg
USOS hardware = 426kg

Total items in the cargo compartment = 1152kg

Total mass of the cargo delivered = 2630kg

 

[SiberianTiger]

Hope that whatever is in the crew parcels, it hasn't rotten during the prolonged flight!

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Here's some hi-res images of the docking.

Hi-res version.

Hi-res version.

Hi-res version.

Hi-res version.

Hi-res version.

Alexander Skvortsov monitoring the docking with the TORU manual docking system in the SM.

Hi-res version.

 

[SiberianTiger]

http://www.federalspace.ru/main.php?id=2&nid=11820

Last Tuesday, Vladimir Solovyov, the flight director of RSOS ISS, told media that the docking attempt of Progress M-06M on July 2nd, was aborted due to two factors: one was noisy communications channel, another one was pressing a wrong button on TORU remote controls by the cosmonauts. He told that he "wouldn't be blaming the cosmonauts, though, because the investigation revealed the button was not protected from accidental pressing well enough".

Other quotes:
"At distance of 2.7 km away from the station the nominal flow of the approaching sequence got aborted. We then stopped gaining distance between the station and the ship and came around for another attempt with minimum propellant consumption."

"Another docking attempt on July 4th was done with blocked TORU system."

"We have ideas on how to improve TORU and communications, but we aren't able to do improvement to the next departing Progress, M-07M (to be launched on September, 8th). As to the modifying the subsequent freighters, we'll think it over".

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Roscosmos PAO: "RSC-Energia Concluded about Interruption of Progress M-06M Rendezvous to the ISS".

Accident commission of RSC-Energia completed investigation of the failure caused interruption of Progress M-06M rendezvous to the International Space Station on July 2, at 20:20:42.
The commission concluded that the rendezvous failed due to unauthorized command "Dynamical mode abort" in the backup manual approach control loop of the Progress.
The command was generated because of interference in the TORU metric wave signal link and pressed button "Operation" on the TORU panel in the ISS Zvezda module.
To avoid similar situation in the future, relevant updates have been implemented for Progress M-07M slated for launch in Sept.
For the next cargo vehicles to fly, additional blocking for this command has been introduced.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

From ISS On-Orbit Status Report for 23/08/2010:

Progress M-06M/38P Commission Report:
According to the now published Russian Commission report on the aborted 38P rendezvous approach on 02/07, the failure was due to the KURS automated rendezvous & docking system's receiver (KURS-P) on 38P being shut down by an automatic emergency command when the transmitter on the ISS (KURS-A) was not activated at the same time as KURS-P (at 8 km). This caused the latter to receive only noise, resulting in an emergency shutdown. Subsequent activation of KURS-A then squelched the noise, allowing 38P to approach to 2.8 km, but the system still contained the emergency command which cancelled the standard KURS test planned at this point. 38P then flew by the ISS on its passively-safe flyby path (as per ballistic trajectory design), without requiring any abort burns. Two days later (04/07), 38P docked successfully to the SM Aft port under KURS autopilot control. To prevent noise from getting into the KURS receiver in the future, it will be activated much later, at 3 km (just before the test), and the transmitter at 8 km. The ground will also verify that KURS-P on Progress is receiving a strong signal, before the crew starts their steps. Also, in an unrelated issue, one of the three channels on the ISS-based command unit has an anomaly, and it will be replaced. For Progress M-07M/39P docking, this unit will be used in the two-channel configuration.

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Roscosmos PAO: "Astronomers in Irkutsk Monitor Autonomous Mission of Progress M-06M".

On August 31, Progress M-06M undocked from the International Space Station. Its autonomous mission will last until Sept. 6, with the purpose to conduct space experiment Plasma-Progress. Physicists of Irkutsk will monitor the autonomous mission of the vehicle to record Progress' maneuvers and to investigate ionosphere response to operations of its thrusters.
A powerful radar for these studies is located about 100km from Irkutsk, installed by the RAS' Institute of Solar Physics. Other Russian ground observatories and optical telescopes will also record maneuvers of the Progress.