Progress (spaceship)

The duration of operation of the first long-term Salyut orbital stations was limited by many factors, including the small reserves of fuel, life support system components and other consumables available on board. Also, in the event of failures, it was necessary to ensure the delivery of repair equipment and devices into orbit. Therefore, during the development of the third-generation Salyut orbital station, it was decided to create a cargo ship (based on the Soyuz manned spacecraft), which later became known as Progress. Various designs were considered; some developers proposed making the ship manned in order to be able to return materials and equipment from the station to Earth. Others considered an unmanned version, which with the same mass of the ship allowed to place a significantly larger amount of cargo; while materials from the station were proposed to be returned by Soyuz spacecraft simultaneously with the return of the crew to Earth. It was on the latter option that the developers eventually stopped. In practice, the first trucks were used as one-time ones, after which they were dumped and they burned in the upper atmosphere. Later, when several docking nodes appeared at the station in the satellite transition compartment, the transported modules began to be used as additional cubic capacity: as laboratories, utility rooms and warehouses, life support modules, etc.

During the design, on-board systems, structures and assemblies of the Soyuz spacecraft were used. "Progress" had three main compartments: a pressurized cargo compartment with a docking unit, which housed materials and equipment delivered to the station; refueling component compartment made leaking to protect the station in the event of toxic fuel leakage; as well as the instrumentation and auxiliary compartment (PAO).

The first Progress-1 cargo ship was launched to the Salyut-6 orbital station on January 20, 1978. After entering orbit and checking the operability of the on-board systems - the orientation and motion control system, the proximity and docking radio equipment, as well as the converging-correcting propulsion system - the automatic approach, landing and docking of the ship with the station began. The flight control center and cosmonauts Yuri Romanenko and Georgy Grechko , who were at Salyut-6 station, controlled the operation. January 22 in automatic mode, the ship was docked with the station.

Progress 11F615A15 (1978-1990)

• Length: 7.48 m;
• Maximum diameter: 2.72 m;
• Weight: 7020 kg;
• Payload: 2315 kg, of which a maximum of 975 kg of fuel;
• First flight: January 20, 1978 (Progress-1 to the Salyut-6 station);
• Last flight: May 5, 1990;
• Number of successful launches: 42, of which:
  • 12 to Salute 6;
  • 12 to Salute 7;
  • 18 to the Mir station.
• Power Supply: Batteries.

Progress M 11F615A55 (1989-2009)

• Length: 7.23 m;
• Maximum diameter: 2.72 m;
• Weight: 7450 kg;
• Payload: 2350 kg, of which a maximum of 1200 kg of fuel;
• First flight: August 23, 1989 (Progress M 1 to Mir station );
• Power supply: Batteries and solar panels.

Progress M1 (2000-2004)

• Length: 7.2 m;
• Maximum diameter: 2.72 m;
• Launch mass: 7150 kg (for an orbit 460 km high);
• The mass of the delivered cargo: 2230 kg, including:
  • Dry cargo: up to 1800 kg;
  • Fuel: up to 1950 kg (800 kg more);
  • Charge gas of inhabited compartments: up to 40 kg (10 kg less).
• Flight time as part of the ISS: up to 180 days, of which:
  • Before docking: up to 4 days;
  • After undocking: up to 3 days.
• first flight: February 1, 2000 ( Progress M1-1 to Mir station );
• Power supply: Batteries and solar panels.

Compared with the Progress M TGK, in accordance with the ISS deployment and operation program, the ship introduced changes to the layout, design, instrument composition and operating modes of the onboard systems. The main goal of the changes is to increase the amount of fuel in the total mass of cargo delivered to the ISS, which is ensured by the installation of eight fuel tanks in the compartment for refueling (OKD) components. In addition, the structure of TGC connections with the onboard systems of the ISS Russian segment on power and command electric circuits and telemetry has been significantly expanded ^[1] .

The leaky OKD has undergone the following changes ^[1] :

• Removed the tanks of the Rodnik water system;
• Instead of the Rodnik tanks, additional tanks of the SD8 refueling system were installed. Refueling of the orbital station (OS) is carried out by displacing the fuel components with compressed gas (helium) through pressurized hydraulic connectors at the OS and TGK docking units, while:
  • The maximum oxidizer consumption through the lines was increased to 0.35 l / s (2.33 times more than on the previous THC modification);
  • The SD8 system, “dry” with a mass of 635 kg, makes it possible to supply fuel both to the tanks of the propulsion system of the ISS service module (SM) and the functional cargo block, to the collectors of the mooring and orientation subsystems of the TGCs and the collectors of the engines of orientation SM;
  • The reverse transfer of fuel from the remote control of the CM to the TGK collectors is possible.
• Outside of the OKD there are 12 cylinders with oxygen and a nitrogen-oxygen mixture.

The hardware composition has changed as follows ^[1] :

• InsteadBCVK Argon-16 introduced a new complex;
• GNSS GLONASS / GPS equipment has been introduced into the autonomous navigation system ;
• The new Kurs-MM rapprochement equipment was installed, which allows measuring relative motion parameters for mooring and docking from a distance of at least 1 km;
• The new Regul command radio equipment was installed using relay satellites;
• Inter-board radio communication “in a narrow cone” is possible at a distance of 30 km, with an arbitrary orientation - from 3 km.

The following changes have been introduced into the motion control system (SUD) ^[1] :

• The new BCVK software has been installed, which implements schemes for safe automatic rendezvous, transition to the mooring zone and the mooring itself;
• Implemented dynamic control modes of the orbital station;
• An interface device has been introduced that converts information coming from the ISS via the inter-machine interface circuits into relay-type commands, which made it possible to turn on TGK engines from the station to create control moments.

Thus, changes in the SAS made it possible to control the station’s orientation using mooring and orientation engines (27 units on Progress-M1) or the converging-correcting engine according to a single program from the ISS onboard control complex ^[1] .

Progress M 11F615A60 (since 2008)

• Payload: about 2.5 tons, fuel, food and water, scientific equipment and supplies;
• First flight: 15:38 Moscow time on November 26, 2008 (to the ISS ).

The new ship of the four hundredth series. The main difference from the previous ones is the new on-board computer complex TsVM-101 , which replaced Argon-16 with a useful RAM of 2048 bytes on ferrite rings , which has been in operation since 1974. The weight of Argon-16 was 65 kg, the weight of the new TsVM machine -101 is 8.5 kg. Analog telemetry system replaced by digital.

Progress M-GKM

On the basis of the supply ship, specialized cargo spacecraft-modules (GKM) were created, which delivered to the International Space Station ( Russian segment ) docking module No. 1 “Pirs” ( Progress M-СО1 ) in 2001 and a small research module No. 2 “Search” ( Progress M-MIM2 ) in 2009.

Progress MC

The next series of modernized transport ships replaced the Progress MM. The first ship of the series, Progress MS-01 , was launched to the ISS on December 21, 2015 ^[2] . It differs from the previous series of transport ships by the presence of an additional external compartment, on the outer surface of the TGK in the compartment it is planned to install four launch containers, with which it is planned to launch up to 24 CubeSat standard satellites with sides of 10 cm ^[3] . Launches will be carried out using Soyuz-U or Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicles ^[4] .

The upgraded ship has additional protection against space debris and micrometeorites in the cargo compartment. To increase fault tolerance, backup motors were introduced into the composition of the docking mechanism and sealing the joint.

The main airborne systems have undergone modernization, providing communication with the ground control complex, as well as those responsible for the approach and docking of the cargo ship: traffic and navigation control system, on-board radio system, docking and internal transition system, television system ^[5] .

The Kvant-V on-board radio system with antenna-feeder devices has been replaced by a new unified command and telemetry system EKTS. Instead of the Kurs-A rapprochement and docking equipment, the Kurs-ON system was installed on the new Progress-MS.

On May 11, 2018, the press center of the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia reported on work to create an unmanned version of the Soyuz spacecraft, capable of delivering and returning cargo from orbit weighing up to 500 kilograms. According to the source of RIA Novosti, the Soyuz will be created on the basis of the Progress ship and will keep the instrument-and-aggregate compartment and the refueling compartment from it ^[6] .

• List of devices of the Progress series

• Gudilin V.E., Slabkiy L.I. Progress spacecraft and their modifications // Space-rocket systems (History. Development. Prospects) . - M. , 1996 .-- 326 p.
• Anatoly Zak. Progress cargo ship series (English) . RussianSpaceWeb.com .
• Progress ( inaccessible link) . Astronautix.com . Archived August 15, 2018.
• Launch of the Soyuz-U launch vehicle with the Progress M-01M spacecraft (neopr.) . Roscosmos television studio .