Cargo spacecraft "Progress-M 27M"

Spacecraft nº:

Russian spacecraft nº:

Launch, orbit & landing data:

Description:

• PROGRESS-M 27M (PROGRESS 59) is a Russian ressuply station headed to the International Space Station. Carrying more than 6,000 pounds of food, fuel, and supplies.

Mission Report:

• The Progress M-25M was lost due to a launch vehicle problem and did not reach orbit.
• Progress 59 cargo craft was launched on Apr 28, 2015 at 3:09 a.m. EDT (1:09 p.m. local time in Baikonur) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
• The Soyuz-2-1a third stage did not shut down correctly (possibly due to explosion onboard) and damaged the spacecraft during separation. 1.5 seconds before spacecraft separation the telemetry was lost from both upper stage and spacecraft. Progress went into a strong tumble after separation from the launch vehicle.
• However, Russian flight controllers initially could not confirm the health of the spacecraft's systems and deployment of Kurs rendezvous and other navigational antennas. They selected the backup rendezvous plan with a targeted arrival Thursday for the cargo ship and its supplies for the space station crew. The Progress spacecraft is in a safe preliminary orbit. As Progress passed over Russian ground stations, the Russian flight control team issued commands through the telemetry system onboard the spacecraft in an attempt to receive confirmation that navigation and rendezvous systems had deployed. But, due to sporadic telemetry from Progress 59, inconclusive data, and trouble uplinking commands to the spacecraft, controllers were unable to confirm the status of the systems.
• Pressure was lost in fuel lines leading to main engine. JSpOC has detected 44 pieces of debris in the vicinity of the Progress vehicle and its upper stage(all reentered by May 7). Attempts to establish contact and to stabilize the vehicle failed. The damaged spacecraft reentered over the South Pacific off the SW coast of Chile at 0220 UTC May 8.