The ISS Progress 31 cargo craft loaded with trash and discards undocked from the Russian Pirs docking compartment Thursday at 8:10 p.m. PST. Russian flight controllers will deorbit the P31 over the Pacific Ocean early Sunday morning after conducting engineering tests. A new resupply vehicle, the ISS Progress 32, will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 9:49 p.m. PST on Tuesday. Loaded with propellant, oxygen, air, spare parts and equipment, the P32 will dock to Pirs on Friday at 11:19 p.m. PST.
The Progress M-01M/31P unmanned resupply spacecraft has undocked from the International Space Station and will become a temporary space lab before being "buried" in the Pacific Ocean. Tests of the new digitally-controlled Progress spacecraft with an upgraded flight computer system will continue at a safe distance from the ISS.
"Its mission will be completed on February 8, when the spacecraft is to be deorbited and disposed of over a designated part of the southern Pacific Ocean" -Spokesperson for Russia's Mission Control.
The craft was launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan on November 26, 2008, to deliver 2.5 tons of cargo to the orbital station. The spacecraft was used on December 17 for a trial adjustment of the ISS's orbit. Preparations are currently under way in Baikonur for the launch of Progress M-66 cargo spacecraft atop a Soyuz-U carrier rocket. Liftoff is scheduled for February 10.
