By Tass
MOSCOW, July 3. /TASS/. Russia’s Progress MS-31 space freighter that will launch atop a Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan overnight to July 4 will deliver about 2.6 tons of cargo to the International Space Station (ISS), the State Space Corporation Roscosmos announced on Thursday.
The launch of the Soyuz 2.1a carrier rocket from Site No. 31 of the Vostok Launch Pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome is scheduled for 10:32 p.m. Moscow time (7:32 p.m. GMT) on July 3. In about nine minutes after the liftoff, the resupply ship will separate from the carrier rocket’s upper stage and approach the International Space Station in about 50 hours after that. The cargo spacecraft is scheduled to dock to the Poisk module of the ISS Russian segment at about 12:28 a.m. Moscow time on July 6.
This will be the second launch of the Progress MS space freighter and the third liftoff of the carrier rocket from the Baikonur spaceport this year.
The Progress MS-31 resupply ship will deliver 2,625 kg of cargo to the orbital outpost, including 1,205 kg of apparatus and equipment, clothing, food, medical and hygienic sets for the crew, other dry cargo, 950 kg of refueling propellant for the space station, 420 liters of potable water for cosmonauts and 50 kg of nitrogen to replenish the ISS atmosphere, Roscosmos said.
The Progress MS-31 space freighter will also deliver stowage for the scientific experiments Biodegradation, Virtual, Fullerene, Biopolymer, Impulse and Mirage, it said.
The Progress MS is a Russian automatic spacecraft designed to service orbital stations, deliver various cargo to the International Space Station (fuel, scientific equipment, oxygen, potable water, food and other supplies) and adjust its orbit.