Russian Space Freighter Undocks From Orbital Station

MOSCOW, February 3 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian cargo spacecraft undocked on Monday from the International Space Station to depart on a weeklong scientific mission before being buried in the Pacific.

“The Progress M-20M has been docked with the ISS since July 28, 2013,” Russia’s Mission Control said.

After the departure from the orbital outpost, the spacecraft will conduct a series of experiments under the Izgib project, which studies how vibrations aboard a spacecraft affect its installed hardware.

“The Progress will be buried in the Pacific Ocean on February 11,” the Mission Control said.

A new Russian resupply spacecraft is scheduled for launch from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on February 5.

With a record of more than 130 launches since 1972 and only one failure, Progress-family freighters remain the backbone of the Russian space cargo fleet. In addition to their main mission as cargo spacecraft, they are used to adjust the ISS’s orbit and conduct scientific experiments.