Oct. 23, 2006
Katherine Trinidad
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-3749
Rob Navias
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
STATUS REPORT: SS06-046
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STATUS REPORT: SS06-046
A shipment of supplies began its journey to the International Space
Station Monday as the ISS Progress 23 cargo ship was launched from
the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The new resupply ship lifted off at 9:41 a.m. EDT (7:41 p.m. Baikonur
time). It will be the 23rd Progress to visit the station. Less than
10 minutes later, the cargo ship reached orbit, and its solar arrays
and navigational antennas were deployed for the three-day trip to the
orbital outpost.
Two pre-programmed firings of the Progress’ main engine are scheduled
Friday to fine-tune the ship’s path to the space station. Additional
rendezvous maneuvers are planned over the next three days.
Expedition 14 Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria and flight engineers
Mikhail Tyurin and Thomas Reiter were flying 220 miles over southern
Russia, north of the Mongolian border, when the Progress was
launched. Carrying almost 2.5 tons of food, water, fuel, oxygen, air,
spare parts and other supplies, the Progress is scheduled to
automatically dock to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module at
10:28 a.m. EDT Thursday. NASA TV coverage of the docking will begin
Thursday at 10 a.m. EDT.
The ISS Progress 22 craft that arrived in June remains docked to the
Pirs Docking Compartment. That Progress will be used to stow trash
and supply oxygen to replenish the station’s atmosphere when
required. The spacecraft won’t be discarded until mid-January.
For more about the crew’s activities and station sighting
opportunities, visit:
The next station status report will be issued on Thursday, Oct. 26,
after the ISS Progress 23 docking, or earlier if events warrant.
-end-
