Russian Pirs Module Successfully Detaches From ISS to Make Room for Incoming Nauka

The Russian section of the International Space Station is now able to obtain the Nauka module, following the profitable elimination of the Pirs docking station and Progress spacecraft.

At 6:55 a.m. on Monday, July 26, an uncrewed Progress MS-16 transport cargo automobile, together with the Pirs docking station, undocked from the ISS, in keeping with a NASA statement. Both ought to have been principally destroyed throughout a managed re-entry via Earth’s environment, and Russian area company Roscosmos tweeted that the “non-combustible structural elements” of the craft fell into the Pacific Ocean.

The Progress 77 mission arrived on the ISS in February, delivering provides and cargo to the Expedition 65 crew. The Pirs module has been in service for 20 years, having been launched to the station on September 14, 2001. Pirs, which suggests “pier” in Russian, is being decommissioned to make room for the incoming Nauka module, also referred to as the Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM), which was launched to orbit final Wednesday.

The authentic plan was to undock Pirs on Friday, July 23, however this was moved to Monday after a stream of issues with the Nauka mission, launched on July 21 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. In addition to not finishing its first orbit-raising burn (a problem resolved with backup thrusters), Nauka has an obvious antenna drawback, and there’s one thing funky happening with its docking goal, which may current difficulties on docking day, scheduled for Thursday, July 29.

This previous Saturday, as soon as it turned clear that Nauka would attain the ISS, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov started preparations for the undocking, closing the switch hatches between Pirs and the Russian section of the area station, whereas additionally checking them for strain integrity, according to Roscosmos.

The Pirs docking station measures 16 toes lengthy (4.9 meters) and 8.4 toes vast (2.6 meters) and weighs 8,461 kilos (3,838 kg), according to NASA. For the previous twenty years, the module has served as a science lab, docking port, and airlock for spacewalks.

Following the undocking, the module and spacecraft had been moved to a protected distance. Controllers used Progress’s thrusters to gradual the objects down, in a process that occurred at 10:01 a.m. EDT. What was left after reentry into Earth environment fell into “a non-navigable area of the Pacific Ocean,” in keeping with Roscosmos. 

With Pirs and Progress gone, the port on the Earth-facing aspect of the Russian section is able to obtain Nauka, which suggests “science” in Russian. The new section will present extra room for science experiments, cargo, and tools. Nauka can be delivering Europe’s new robotic arm, which is able to service the Russian section of the area station.