Kurs () is an automated system for docking spacecraft used by the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and later the Russian space program. The system is primarily used by

Progress Progress is movement towards a perceived refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. It is central to the philosophy of progressivism, which interprets progress as the set of advancements in technology, science, and social organization effic ...

cargo spacecraft,

Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз (Russian language, Russian and Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Soviet Union, Union of Soviet Socialist Republi ...

spacecraft and to dock new modules to the

Russian Orbital Segment The Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) is the name given to the components of the International Space Station (ISS) constructed in Russia and operated by the Russian Roscosmos. The ROS handles Guidance, Navigation, and Control for the entire Station ...

of the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

. The

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

-based control system was developed by the Research Institute of Precision Instruments in Moscow before 1985 and initially manufactured by the Kiev Radio Factory. Kurs is now manufactured in Russia.

History

Kurs was the successor to the Igla system and today provides navigation beaconing for Russian space vehicles including the

Soyuz spacecraft Soyuz () is a series of spacecraft which has been in service since the 1960s, having made more than 140 flights. It was designed for the Soviet space program by the Korolev Design Bureau (now Energia). The Soyuz succeeded the Voskhod spacecraf ...

and

Progress spacecraft The Progress () is a Russian expendable cargo spacecraft. Originally developed for the Soviet space program and derived from the crewed Soyuz spacecraft, Progress has been instrumental in maintaining long-duration space missions by providing ...

. The main difference between both systems is that Igla requires the space station to collaborate in the docking maneuver by reorienting itself to point the docking port to the spacecraft, while Kurs allows docking with a fully stationary space station. The main reason for this change was that Mir was to be a much bigger space station than the older Salyut, so the propellant consumption would have been excessive for each docking. Kurs provided the automated docking system for all Russian spacecraft that docked with the ''

Mir ''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...

'' space station. When used for docking, the Soyuz or Progress vehicle broadcasts radar pulses from multiple antennas. The variation in strength between the antennas allows the system to compute relative position, attitude, and approach rate. The system is designed for automatic rendezvous and docking, but in an emergency cosmonauts may take command of the vehicle, either locally or from the

. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Kurs system became the property of

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

; its manufacturer became a competitor in the space launch business with the

Russian Federal Space Agency The State Corporation for Space Activities "Roscosmos", commonly known simply as Roscosmos (), is a state corporation of the Russian Federation responsible for space flights, cosmonautics programs, and aerospace research. Originating from ...

(RKA). Due to hard-currency problems, Kiev also raised the price of the Kurs system. Consequently, RKA sought to phase out its use in its vehicles. A test using the Russian

TORU TORU or Toru may refer to: *TORU, spacecraft system *Tōru (given name), Japanese male given name *Toru, Pakistan, village in Mardan District of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan *Tõru, village in Kaarma Parish, Saare County, Estonia *Toru River, river ...

backup system to reduce reliance on Kurs, was responsible for the collision between ''

'' and Progress M-34 and the damage to the Spektr module, nearly causing ''Mir'' to be abandoned. After the collision and recovery, the next Progress ship had a failure of Kurs, and was docked successfully using the same TORU system.NASA-5 Mike Foale: Collision and Recovery
/ref>

Kurs-NA

The Kurs-NA () docking system, requiring only one rendezvous antenna and using less power, replaces Kurs-A, which required five antennas. It was tested by Progress M-15M in July 2012 and by Progress M-21M in November 2013. It is used on the Progress MS (2015-present).

ISS

ATV

The now Russian-built antenna part of the Kurs system also served as an independent and redundant docking monitoring system for the European

Automated Transfer Vehicle The Automated Transfer Vehicle, originally Ariane Transfer Vehicle or ATV, was an expendable automated cargo spacecraft, cargo spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), used for space cargo transport in 2008–2015. The ATV desi ...

. It served as an additional monitoring system and could not be used to control the approach or docking of the ATV.

Failures

# On 18 November 2000 during the docking of Progress M1-4 with the

the Kurs system failed requiring a manual docking approach by Soyuz commander

Yuri Gidzenko Yuri Pavlovich Gidzenko (; born March 26, 1962) is a Russian cosmonaut. He was a test cosmonaut of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (TsPK). Gidzenko has flown into space three times and has lived on board the Mir and the International ...

. The failure was due to a software glitch that prevented the ship's computer system from smoothly switching from guidance data transmitted by antennas on the Zvezda module to signals transmitted from Zarya. A later redocking had to be done manually, also by Gidzenko, as an antenna required for the final approach was irreversibly retracted during the initial approach. # Immediately after launch of Progress M-01M on 26 November 2008, a Kurs antenna failed to deploy. The antenna was successfully deployed about three hours later after flight controllers resent the deployment command, however the spacecraft was docked to the

using the

system, controlled by

Cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

Yury Lonchakov, as a precaution. # On 29 July 2009 Progress M-67 was on approach to the

in an incorrect orientation. The Kurs system was deactivated, and Cosmonaut

Gennady Padalka Gennady Ivanovich Padalka (; born 21 June 1958 in Krasnodar, Soviet Union) is a Russian Air Force officer and Roscosmos cosmonaut. Padalka is the only person to have served as commander of the International Space Station (ISS) four times. He previ ...

performed a manual docking using the

system. # On 1 May 2010

Progress M-05M Progress M-05M (), identified by NASA as Progress 37P, is a Progress (spacecraft), Progress spacecraft launched by the Russian Federal Space Agency in April 2010 to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). The spacecraft carried fresh fo ...

was about 1 kilometer away from the

when its Kurs system failed. Oleg Kotov used the backup

system to manually control the rendezvous and docking, setting a record for the furthest distance a Progress spacecraft was flown under manual control. # On 15 December 2015 during the docking of

Soyuz TMA-19M Soyuz TMA-19M was a 2015 Russian Soyuz spaceflight to the International Space Station. It was launched on December 15, 2015 from Baikonur Cosmodrome, transporting three members of the Expedition 46 crew to the International Space Station. TMA-19 ...

with the

the Kurs system mis-aligned the spacecraft and failed to dock, requiring a manual docking approach piloted by Soyuz Commander

Yuri Malenchenko Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko (; born December 22, 1961) is a retired Russian cosmonaut. Malenchenko became the first person to marry in space, on 10 August 2003, when he married Ekaterina Dmitrieva, who was in Texas, while he was over New Zealan ...

. This delayed the docking by 10 minutes. # On 24 August 2019 during the docking of the uncrewed Soyuz MS-14 with the

the spacecraft failed to lock on to the Poisk Module port due to a failure in a Kurs signal amplifier on the ''Poisk'' module and failed to dock. Since the backup

system was not installed on the vehicle, the docking attempt was aborted. It was decided that Soyuz MS-13 would be manually relocated onto the faulty Poisk port, freeing up the Zvezda aft port for Soyuz MS-14 to dock there successfully three days later on 27 August. # On 17 February 2021 during final approach Progress MS-16 suffered a communication issue 20m from the station. Kurs was deactivated and Sergey Ryzhikov took manual control with the

system and docked successfully. # On 5 October 2021 during the docking of Soyuz MS-19 there was a malfunction of the Kurs system on the Rassvet port, requiring the Soyuz spacecraft commander Anton Shkaplerov to take control and dock manually. As of May 2022, there have been 83 successful dockings to the

performed by Kurs with Soyuz & Progress vehicles, and the Nauka station module, giving Kurs a 90.4% success rate.

References

{{reflist, 2 Spacecraft docking systems Space program of the Soviet Union

History

Kurs-NA

ISS

ATV

Failures

See also

References