MOSCOW, June 11 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Progress M-19M cargo spacecraft will be undocked on Tuesday from the International Space Station (ISS) and depart on a week-long orbital flight to conduct a series of experiments, Russia’s Mission Control said.
“The undocking has been scheduled for 05.59 pm Moscow time [13:59 GMT] on June 11,” a Mission Control spokesman told RIA Novosti on Monday.
“The Progress space freighter will carry out a series of experiments as part of the Radar-Progress project to study the physical characteristics of the ionosphere environment around the spacecraft caused by the work of its liquid-propellant engines,” the official said.
The spacecraft will be de-orbited on June 19 and “buried” in the Pacific Ocean, he added.
The Progress-M19 arrived at the orbital station on April 26, over 2.5 tons of cargo to the ISS, including food, water and oxygen for the crew, along with parcels from their families.
The departure of Progress space freighter clears a docking port on the Zvezda module for the European ATV-4 resupply spacecraft, which blasted off from the Kourou space center in French Guiana on June 5 and is expected to arrive at the ISS on June 15.
The launch of the next Russian cargo spacecraft, Progress M-20M, is scheduled for July 28 from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, according to sources in the Russian space industry.
