Russian module "Pirs" undocked from the ISS was de-orbited and flooded in the Pacific Ocean
The Russian Pirs module, undocked from the ISS today, was de-orbited and flooded in the Pacific Ocean. The undocking and flooding work was carried out by the Progress-16 spacecraft.
The undocking of the module, which has been operating on the ISS for 20 years, began today. At 16:13, the Progress-56 ship departed from the lower docking station of the Russian Zvezda module at 13.59:XNUMX, Moscow time, at XNUMX Moscow time, the ship turned on the engines and moved the module away from the station, thereby freeing up the docking station for the new Nauka module. which is already moving towards the ISS.
Progress-16 launched the vault of the Pirs module from orbit at 17:01 in order to flood it in the Pacific Ocean. Currently, according to calculations, the ship with the module should already enter the atmosphere and collapse. The elements remaining from them will fall in the South Pacific.
By the way, the Progress-16 ship was nicknamed "Gerasim" in the MCC in honor of the hero of Turgenev's story "Mumu" for her actions to flood the Pirs module.
Meanwhile, the Nauka multifunctional module, launched on July 21 into orbit with the help of the Proton-M launch vehicle, continues to move to the ISS, the module docking to the station is scheduled for July 29. On July 24, the MCC made an orbit adjustment of the new module, the next one is scheduled for Tuesday, July 27.
After undocking of Pirs, the Russian segment of the ISS consists of four modules: the Zarya functional cargo block (launched in 1998), the Zvezda service module (2000), the Poisk (2009) and Rassvet ( 2010). After docking "Science", it will again become a five-module. The "Science" will be docked to the "Star" module. Despite its name, the new module will also be used to maintain the orientation of the ISS, dock ships and maintain the station's life support system. In addition, the module will have a living single cabin.
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