MOSCOW. Jan 19 (Interfax-AVN) - The Energia Corporation will have a pilot project of an express Progress freighter this year. The spaceship will reach the International Space Station (ISS) seven times more rapidly than usual, an aerospace corporation source told Interfax-AVN.
"As a rule, a Progress flies to the ISS for two or three days. This time specialists want to test a rapid docking, eight hours after the launch," he said.
The formula may be used in the future rapid delivery of crews or cargo to the ISS, he noted. "In this case, the three astronauts will not have to spend two days in tight quarters and experience fatigue or nausea," the source said.
"The human vestibular system may adjust to the new conditions for days or even weeks. That is a serious problem, which may result in the astronaut's loss of working ability in the period of adaptation to zero gravity," he noted.
Progress M-15M, which will fly to the ISS on April 25, may be the first spaceship to try the rapid docking, he said.
The negative moment in the rapid docking is that the working day of an astronaut will grow to 14 or more hours, including pre-flight preparations, the flight itself and the docking with the ISS within the same day.
Federal Space Agency head Vladimir Popovkin said last year the Agency was seeking a possibility to make life easier for the astronauts traveling by Soyuz spaceships. "Next year [2012] we will test the delivery of a crew to the station within one day instead of two," he said.