Russia Says Progress Docking Will Proceed Friday Morning EDT
Russia’s RIA Novosti is quoting Russian space officials as saying that the docking of Progress M-19M will proceed on schedule tomorrow morning Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) even though its navigation antenna did not deploy.
The robotic cargo spacecraft was launched yesterday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Once on orbit, one of the antennas for its KURS navigation system used to bring it in for docking with the International Space Station (ISS) failed to deploy, however. The spacecraft is continuing on its 2-day rendezvous course to meet up with ISS tomorrow morning, Friday, April 26. The nominal schedule calls for docking at 8:26 am EDT. NASA TV will provide live coverage beginning at 6:30 am EDT.
RIA Novosti reported that ground controllers will continue to try to get the antenna to deploy, but quoted a spokesman for the Russian space enterprise Energia as saying “Even if we fail, the problem with the antenna should not hamper the docking.” The ISS crew will be instructed to conduct a manual docking instead of an automated docking if the antenna remains undeployed.
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