MOSCOW. Oct 21 (Interfax) - The Progress MS-17 resupply ship has successfully undocked from the Poisk module on board the International Space Station (ISS) and is due to dock at the Nauka module in 29 hours, according to a Roscosmos live stream.
The Progress MS-17 undocked from the station at 2:42 a.m. Moscow time, according to the live stream. The spaceship is now moving away from the ISS in expectation of design ballistic conditions for docking at the Nauka module.
The re-docking will take 29 hours. The cargo carrier is due to dock at the Nauka module at 7:31 a.m. on October 22. During this process, the Progress MS-17 will perform a series of correction maneuvers, moving up to 185 kilometers away from the ISS.
This operation will help prepare the Nauka module for the arrival of the Prichal nodal module to the ISS.
"The docking port of the Nauka module currently accommodates a specialized adapter (adapter ring) that allows Russian Soyuz MS and Progress MS spaceships to dock. The Progress MS-17 will take it away as it undocks from the station for good. After such a two-stage check, the Prichal module, due to launch in late November of this year, will dock at the docking port," Roscosmos said.
The Progress M-UM carrying the Prichal module is expected to be sent to the ISS aboard the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle on November 24. The Prichal will dock at the Nauka multi-function laboratory module, while its main mission will be to additionally expand the Russian segment's capacity through the presence of multiple docking ports.