Progress M-08M (), identified by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

as Progress 40P, is a

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 ...

spacecraft which was used to resupply 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 ...

. It was the eighth

Progress-M Progress-M (, GRAU indices 11F615A55 and 11F615A60), also known as Progress 7K-TGM, is a Russian, previously Soviet spacecraft which is used to resupply space stations. It is a variant of the Progress spacecraft, originally built in the late 1 ...

11F615A60 spacecraft to be launched, the fifth for the year 2010. The spacecraft was manufactured by

RKK Energia S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation "Energia" () is a Russian manufacturer of spacecraft and space station components. Its name is derived from the Russian word for energy and is also named for Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, the first chief o ...

, and was operated by 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 ...

. It arrived at the space station on 30 October 2010 whilst the

Expedition 25 Expedition 25 was the 25th long-duration mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Expedition 25 began with the Soyuz TMA-18 undocking on 25 September 2010. Three new crewmembers (Scott Kelly, Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka) arrive ...

crew was aboard, and departed during

Expedition 26 Expedition 26 was the 26th long-duration mission to the International Space Station. The expedition's first three crew members – one US astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts – arrived at the station on board Soyuz TMA-01M on 10 October 2010. E ...

on 24 January 2011.

Prelaunch operations

Prior to the expected launch, preparations had been going for months. A train with the

Soyuz-U Soyuz-U ( GRAU index: 11A511U) was a Soviet and later Russian expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed by the TsSKB design bureau and constructed at the Progress factory in Samara, Russia. The ''U'' designation stands for ''unified' ...

rocket that will be used for the Progress launch arrived at

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...

on 24 July 2010. The rocket was transported to Site 112. The Progress M-08M spacecraft was delivered to the Baikonur on 3 September 2010 where it was hosted at site 254. Prelaunch processing gathered pace afterwards with tests of the Progress' RF systems in the acoustic chamber completed in late September 2010 and leak checks in the vacuum chamber in early October 2010. On 3 October 2010, Progress spacecraft was transported to hall 104 of the integration facility from the

vacuum chamber A vacuum chamber is a rigid enclosure from which air and other gases are removed by a vacuum pump. This results in a low-pressure environment within the chamber, commonly referred to as a vacuum. A vacuum environment allows researchers to c ...

. Further tests continued and potable water was loaded into Rodnik tanks of the Progress M-08M spacecraft. On 15 October 2010,

Russian 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 ...

began prelaunch processing of Baikonur's pad 1, preparing it for the Progress launch. On 18 October 2010, Progress M-08M cargo vehicle was loaded with propellant components and compressed gases, and returned to the integration and test facility for further processing. With Designers' inspection of Progress M-08M completed, the spacecraft was transported to the launch vehicle integration facility for further assembly with the Soyuz-U rocket. The combined Soyuz-U rocket and the Progress M-08M spacecraft stack was rolled out and installed in vertical at Baikonur's pad 1 during the morning of 25 October 2010. Soon afterwards, Launch minus three day (L-3) prelaunch operations commenced at the pad.

Cargo

Progress M-08M hauled 2572 kg of cargo supplies including water, air, fuel and hardware for ''Molniya-Gamma'' and ''Coulomb Crystal'' experiments to the space station. The Molniya-Gamma experiment measures gamma splashes and optical radiation during terrestrial lightning and thunder conditions. The spacecraft also carried high-speed data transmission equipment to be installed on the outer surface of the space station during a spacewalk by cosmonauts

Oleg Skripochka Oleg Ivanovich Skripochka (; born 24 December 1969 in Nevinnomyssk, Stavropol Krai, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union) is a Russian engineer and cosmonaut. In 2011 he was in space serving as an Expedition 25/ 26 crewmember. On 12 April 2011, Skripo ...

and

Dmitri Kondratyev Dmitri Yuryevich Kondratyev (, born on 25 May 1969 in Irkutsk, Russia) is a retired Russian cosmonaut. He served as a crew member on the International Space Station long duration mission Expedition 27 as Commander, having also served as a Flight E ...

in January 2011. In addition to the standard rations, the food boxes contain fresh fruits and vegetables – lemons, apples, onions, tomatoes, and 1 kg of garlic.

Inventory

Total cargo mass delivered: 2572 kg ‡ Included 250 kg of propellent for the space station needs.

Mission timeline

Launch

On 26 October 2010, the space station performed a Debris Avoidance Maneuver (DAM) in order to get out of the way of a piece of debris from the defunct Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). As such, at 10:25 UTC, the engines of the

Progress M-07M Progress M-07M (), identified by NASA as Progress 39P, is a Progress spacecraft which was used to resupply the International Space Station. It was the seventh Progress-M 11F615A60 spacecraft to be launched, the fourth for the year 2010 and has t ...

spacecraft, were fired for three minutes in a posigrade direction. This resulted in an increase in velocity of the space station by 0.4 metres per second. As such, the launch of Progress M-08M launch was brought forward by three seconds from 15:11:53 UTC. The Soyuz-U carrier rocket with Progress M-08M was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome's Pad 1 (Gagarin's launch pad) at 15:11:50 on 27 October 2010. Ascent was nominal, and all systems functioned without issues. The launch mass of the spacecraft was 7289 kg. Progress M-08M successfully achieved the preliminary orbit of (192.46 by 242.99 kilometres,

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Eart ...

51.4°,

period Period may refer to: Common uses * Period (punctuation) * Era, a length or span of time *Menstruation, commonly referred to as a "period" Arts, entertainment, and media * Period (music), a concept in musical composition * Periodic sentence (o ...

88.57 minutes) after a nine-minute ascent provided by the three-stage Soyuz-U rocket. In space, onboard commands were issued to unfurl the spacecraft's communications and navigation antennas and extend the two solar arrays.

Docking

ISS-25 Oleg Skripochka and Alexander Kaleri at TORU

On 30 October 2010, after three days of autonomous flight following the launch, Progress M-08M docked with the Pirs Docking Compartment Module nadir port of the space station. The successful linkup came at 16:36 UTC while flying at 350 km over western

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. In preparation for the docking on 20 October 2010, the engines of the

spacecraft were fired for 228.7 seconds. This reboost placed the space station at the proper altitude to receive Progress M-08M. A late DAM performed on 26 October 2010 slightly changed the station's orientation in space and the planned docking had to be brought forward by a couple of minutes. The Progress M-08M spacecraft, flying on autopilot, performed a flawless rendezvous with the space station. After arriving in the vicinity of the space station, Progress M-08M began a flyaround maneuver to get lined up with the docking port and then executed a roll maneuver to properly orient its solar wings with surrounding structures around the Pirs module. A brief stationkeeping hold with about 200 metre between the spacecraft and space station allowed Russian flight controllers to assess systems before giving approval to commence the final approach. During stationkeeping, flight controllers in Moscow instructed cosmonaut

Aleksandr Kaleri Aleksandr "Sasha" Yuriyevich Kaleri (; born in Jūrmala, Latvia on 13 May 1956) is a former Russian cosmonaut and veteran of extended stays on the Mir Space Station and the International Space Station (ISS). Kaleri has most recently been in space ...

to activate the

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 ...

manual docking equipment and take over the piloting tasks from the Progress' autonomous

KURS KURS (1040 kHz) is an AM radio station broadcasting a Spanish-language Catholic radio format. The station is licensed to San Diego, California and is owned by El Sembrador Ministries. KURS is an affiliate of ''ESNE Radio''. ESNE had been he ...

system. The switch to manual mode was decided at range of 194 metre. Kaleri worked inside the space station's Zvezda module to fly Progress M-08M remotely using television views and a pair of joysticks and guided it to the successful docking. The range rate at the time of contact, based on Mission Control Center-Moscow calculations was 0.067 m/s. Hooks and latches were engaged a few minutes later to firmly secure Progress M-08M to the space station. The

crew opened hatches and entered the Progress later on the next day. Progress M-08M undocking

Undocking and decay

Progress M-08M spacecraft undocked nominally from the International Space Station on 23 January 2011. The undocking command was issued by Russian Mission Control at 00:40 UTC. The spacecraft was not used for further scientific experiments. The deorbit burn took place at 05:16 UTC on 24 January 2011. It re-entered and fell into a remote area of the southern Pacific Ocean at 06:07 UTC.

References

External links

Video: Station Crew Welcomes New Supply Ship
- NASAtelevision / YouTube {{Orbital launches in 2010 Spacecraft launched in 2010 Progress (spacecraft) missions Spacecraft which reentered in 2011 Supply vehicles for the International Space Station Spacecraft launched by Soyuz-U rockets