Progress MS-17 cargo freighter sent on a two-day trek to ISS
Progress MS-17 launches atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket at 7:27 p.m. EDT June 29, 2021. It’s slated to arrive at the International Space Station in about two days. Credit: Roscosmos
Just before dawn, Russia’s Progress MS-17 cargo spacecraft lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to send supplies to the International Space Station.
Liftoff atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket took place at 7:27 p.m. EDT June 29 (4:27 a.m. Baikonur time June 30 / 23:27 UTC June 29), 2021. About 9 minutes later, Progress MS-17 was deployed into orbit and sent on a two-day trek to the ISS.
Progress MS-17 is slated to rendezvous with the space station and dock with the space-facing Poisk module after some 34 orbits at about 9:03 p.m. EDT July 1 (1:00 UTC July 2).
Aboard is more than 3,600 pounds (1,600 kilograms) of supplies and consumables for the seven-person Expedition 65 crew.
The cargo spacecraft is slated to remain at the Poisk module until late October before it is expected to be commanded to autonomously undock and relocate to the Earth-facing port of the soon-to-be-launched Nauka module. After that, it’ll undock from Nauka, likely sometime in November.
At the end of its mission, it’ll leave the vicinity of the ISS before performing a deorbit burn for a destructive reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.
Video courtesy of Space Videos
Derek Richardson
Derek Richardson has a degree in mass media, with an emphasis in contemporary journalism, from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. While at Washburn, he was the managing editor of the student run newspaper, the Washburn Review. He also has a website about human spaceflight called Orbital Velocity. You can find him on twitter @TheSpaceWriter.
