“The SpaceX CRS-9 Dragon cargo craft departed the International Space Station Aug. 26 after five weeks at the complex. Dragon delivered critical science experiments and the first International Docking Adapter to which U.S. commercial spacecraft will link up to in the future. Using the Canadarm2 robotic arm, Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Kate Rubins released the Dragon and monitored the resupply spacecraft as it backed away to a safe distance from the station for its deorbit engine firing that would enable the ship to enter the Earth’s atmosphere for a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California. Dragon returned about one and a half tons of science experiments and other cargo that will be collected once it reaches port in Long Beach, California. Dragon launched July 18 atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and arrived at the station July 20.”
“The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft launched on the company’s Falcon 9 rocket on July 18 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida, carrying science research, crew supplies and hardware in support of the Expedition 48 and 49 crew aboard the International Space Station. About 10 minutes after launch, Dragon reached its preliminary orbit, deployed its solar arrays and began a carefully choreographed series of thruster firings to begin its two-day journey to the station. […]
On July 20, two days after launching from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) in Florida , the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station, carrying science research, crew supplies and hardware in support of the station’s Expedition 48 and 49 crews. NASA astronaut Jeff Williams used the station’s robotic arm, which he controlled from the station’s cupola, to capture the Dragon. Ground controllers in Houston then sent commands instructing the robot arm to install Dragon on the Earth-facing side of the station’s Harmony module. During the next five weeks, crew members will unload the spacecraft and reload it with cargo to return to Earth. About five-and-a-half hours after it departs the station Aug. 29, it will splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California.”
“Two days after its launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the unpiloted Russian ISS Progress 64 cargo ship automatically docked to the Pirs Docking Compartment on the Russian segment of the International Space Station July 18. The new Progress is delivering three tons of food, fuel and supplies to the six crewmembers comprising the Expedition 48 crew. The Progress will remain attached to the station until late January, when it will undock and commanded to deorbit so it can burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.”
“Expedition 48-49 Soyuz Commander Anatoly Ivanishin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineers Kate Rubins of NASA and Takuya Onishi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched on the Russian Soyuz MS-01 spacecraft July 7 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to begin a two-day journey to the International Space Station and the start of a four-month mission.”
“The Soyuz-MS (Союз МС) is the latest (and probably last) revision of the venerable Soyuz spacecraft. It is an evolution of the Soyuz TMA-M spacecraft, with modernization mostly concentrated on the communications and navigation subsystems. It is used by the Russian Federal Space Agency for human spaceflight. Soyuz-MS has minimal external changes with respect to the Soyuz TMA-M, mostly limited to antennas and sensors, as well as the thrusters placement.
The Soyuz MS received the following upgrades with respect to the Soyuz TMA-M:
The power supply system SEP (Russian: CЭП, Система Электропитания) still uses fixed solar panels. But photovoltaic cells efficiency was improved to 14% (from 12%) and collective area was increased 1.1 m2 (12 sq ft).
A fifth 906V battery with 155 Ampere-hour capacity was added to support the increased energy consumption from the improved electronics.
Additional micro meteoroid protection was added to the BO orbital module.
New computer (TsVM-101), weighs one-eighth that of its predecessor (8.3 kg vs. 70 kg) while also being much smaller than the previous Argon-16 computer.
While as of July 2016 it is not know if the propulsion system is still called KTDU-80, it has been significantly modified. While previously the system had 16 high thrust DPO-B and six low thrust DPO-M in one propellant supply circuit and six other low thrust DPO-M on a different circuit, now all 28 thrusters are high thrust DPO-B, arranged in 14 pairs. Each propellant supply circuit handles 14 DPO-B, with each element of each thruster pair being fed by a different circuit. This provides full fault tolerance for thruster or propellant circuit failure. The new arrangement adds fault tolerance for docking and undocking with one failed thruster or de-orbit with two failed thrusters. Also, the number of DPO-B in the aft section has been doubled to eight, improving the de-orbit fault tolerance.
The propellant consumption signal, EFIR was redesigned to avoid false positives on propellant consumption.
The avionics unit, BA DPO (Russian: БА ДПО, Блоки Автоматики лодсистема Двигателей Причаливания и Ориентации), had to be modified for all this changes in the RCS.
Instead of relying on ground stations for orbital determination and correction, the now included Satellite Navigation System ASN-K (Russian: (АСН-К, Аппаратуру Спутниковой Навигации) relying on GLONASS and GPS signals for navigation. It uses four fixed antennas to achieve a positioning accuracy of 5 m (16 ft), with the objective to reduce that number to as little as 3 cm (1.2 in) and an attitude accuracy of 0.5°.
The old radio command system, the BRTS (Russian: БРТС Бортовая Радио-текхническая Система) that relied on the Kvant-V was replaced with an integrated communications and telemetry system, EKTS (Russian: ЕКТС, Единой Kомандно-Телеметрической Системы). It can use not only the VHF and UHF ground stations but thanks to the addition of an S band antenna, the Lutch Constellation as well, to have theoretical 85% of real time connection to ground control. But since the S band antenna is fixed and Soyuz spacecraft cruises in a slow longitudinal rotation, in practice this capability might be limited due to lack of antenna pointing capability. It may also be able to use the American TDRS and the European EDRS in the future.
The old information and telemetry system MBITS (Russian: МБИТС, МалогаБаритная Информационно-Телеметрическая Система) has been fully integrated into the EKTS.
The old VHF radio communication system (Russian: Система Телефонно-Телеграфной Связи) Rassvet-M (Russian: Рассвет-М) was replaced withe the Rassvet-3BM (Russian: Рассвет-3БМ) system that has been integrated into the EKTS.
The old 38G6 antennas are replaced with four omnidirectional antenna (two on the solar panels tips and two in the PAO) plus one S band phased array, also in the PAO.
The descent module communication and telemetry system also received upgrades that will lead to eventually having a voice channel in addition to the present telemetry.
The EKTS system also includes a COSPAS-SARSAT transponder to transmit it’s coordinates to ground control in real time during parachute fall and landing.
All the changes introduced with the EKTS enable the Soyuz to use the same ground segment terminals as the Russian Segment of the ISS.
The new Kurs-NA (Russian: Курс-НА) automatic docking system is now made indigenously in Russia. Developed by Sergei Medvedev of AO NII TP, it is claimed to be 25 kg (55 lb) lighter, use 30% less voluminous and 25% less power. An AO-753A phased array antenna replaced the 2AO-VKA antenna and three AKR-VKA antennas, while the two 2ASF-M-VKA antenna were moved to fixed positions further back.
The docking system received a backup electric driving mechanism.
Instead of the analog TV system Klest-M (Russian: Клест-М), the spacecraft uses a digital TV system based on MPEG-2, which makes it possible to maintain communications between the spacecraft and the station via a space-to-space RF link and reduces interferences.
A new Digital Backup Loop Control Unit, BURK (Russian: БУРК, Блок Управления Резервным Контуром), developed by RSC Energia, replaced the old avionics, the Motion and Orientation Control Unit, BUPO (Russian: БУПО, Блока Управления Причаливанием и Ориентацией) and the signal conversion unit BPS (Russian: БПС, блока преобразования сигналов).
The upgrade also replaces the old Rate Sensor Unit BDUS-3M (Russian: БДУС-3М, блок датчиков угловых скоростей) with the new BDUS-3A (Russian: БДУС-3А).
The the old halogen headlights, SMI-4 (Russian: СМИ-4), have been replaced with the LED powered headlight SFOK (Russian: СФОК).
A new black box SZI-M (Russian: СЗИ-М, Система запоминания информации) that records voice and data during the mission was added under the pilot’s seat in the descent module. The dual unit module was developed at AO RKS corporation in Moscow with the use of indigenous electronics. It has a capacity of 4GB and a recording speed of 256Kilobyte/s. It is designed to tolerate falls of 150 m/s (490 ft/s) and is rated for 100,000 overwrite cycles and 10 reuses. It can also tolerate 700 °C (1,292 °F) for 30 minutes.”
“After saying farewell to NASA’s Jeff Williams and the rest of the crew onboard the International Space Station on June 18. Expedition 47 Commander Tim Kopra of NASA, Soyuz Commander Yuri Malenchenko of Roscosmos and Flight Engineer Tim Peake of ESA (European Space Agency) undocked from the ISS for the return trip to Earth. Kopra, Malenchenko and Peake spent 186 days in space aboard the orbital laboratory.
[They] landed safely near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan June 18, hours after leaving the International Space Station in their Soyuz TMA-19M spacecraft.”
“At the International Space Station, Expedition 47 Commander Tim Kopra used the Canadarm2 robotic arm to release the Orbital/ATK Cygnus cargo craft June 14, just hours after it was detached from the station. The spacecraft is loaded with trash and other unneeded items. Cygnus is also serving as a platform for an investigation called the Spacecraft Fire Experiment (SAFFIRE), that will deliberately ignite a fire in an enclosed environment so that instruments can measure flame growth and oxygen usage. This experiment is designed to improve the understanding of fire growth in microgravity and to safeguard future space missions. A group of nanosatellites is also being released from Cygnus which will be deorbited June 22 to send the craft into a destructive re-entry over the Pacific Ocean. Cygnus was launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida atop an Atlas V rocket March 23, arriving at the station March 26 to deliver tons of experiments and supplies for the station’s residents.”
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