Image above: The ISS Progress 20 cargo craft undocks from the station on June 19, 2006. Image credit: NASA

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ISS Progress 22 undocks, new cargo craft awaits launch

The ISS Progress 22 cargo craft undocked from the International Space Station Tuesday at 6:29 p.m. EST.

The Russian-built cargo carriers, which carry discarded items after leaving the station, enter the Earth's atmosphere three hours later and burn up safely.

The undocking clears the station’s Pirs Docking Compartment for the arrival of the ISS Progress 24 on Friday, Jan. 19 at 10 p.m. The new Progress will launch Wednesday, Jan. 17 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:12 p.m. The cargo craft is delivering 2 1/2 tons of propellant, oxygen, spacewalk gear and clothing.

The Progress launch is commemorating the 100th birthday of Sergei Korolev who was born Jan. 12, 1907. Korolev is recognized as the "Great Designer" of Soviet spacecraft. His picture is featured on the payload fairing of the rocket that will launch the Progress into orbit

Image above: Artist's rendering of the International Space Station following scheduled activities of Jan. 16, 2007. Progress 22 resupply vehicle undocks from the Pirs Docking Compartment. Progress 23 remains connected to the Zvezda Service Module aft port. Image credit: NASA

P24 will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It is scheduled to reach the station after a flight of just over two days. Docking is to be on Friday, Jan. 19 a little after 10 p.m.

The spacecraft will use the automated Kurs system to dock at the Pirs Docking Compartment. Expedition 14 flight engineer Mikhail Tyurin, RZ3FT, will stand by at the manual Toru docking system controls, should his intervention become necessary.

Expedition 14 crew members, Commander Mike Lopez-Alegria, KE5GTK, Tyurin and Flight Engineer Sunita Williams, KD5PLB, finished filling P24's sister cargo carrier, ISS Progress 22, with trash and other discards for its Jan. 16 undocking from Pirs and subsequent destruction on re-entry.

Image above: Artist's rendering of the International Space Station following scheduled activities of Jan. 19, 2007. Progress 24 resupply vehicle docks to the Pirs Docking Compartment (lower left). Progress 23 remains connected to the Zvezda Service Module aft port. Image credit: NASA.

After its unloading, P22 was used as a storage area for a while. Many items brought to the station aboard the space shuttle Discovery on STS-121 in July eventually found a temporary home there until crew members could put them in more permanent places.

ISS Progress 23 remains at the aft compartment of the Zvezda Service Module. It is scheduled to undock in April.

The Progress is similar in appearance and some design elements to the Soyuz spacecraft, which brings crew members to the station, serves as a lifeboat while they are there and returns them to Earth. The aft module, the instrumentation and propulsion module, is nearly identical.

But the second of the three Progress sections is a refueling module, and the third, uppermost as the Progress sits on the launch pad, is a cargo module. On the Soyuz, the descent module, where the crew is seated on launch and which returns them to Earth, is the middle module and the third is called the orbital module.

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