The Russian spacecraft “Progress MS-09” managed to reach the International Space Station (ISS) in record time, thanks to a new mechanism.
The Mission Control center, located in the outskirts of Moscow, said that the cargo vehicle merged with the space station after 3 hours and 40 minutes of launch, that is, nine minutes before the time estimated by the preliminary calculations. Prior to that, the record for reaching and docking was 5 hours 39 minutes after the launch of the rocket.
The “Soyuz-2.1a” rocket, carrying the “Soyuz freighter”, went off at 5 pm Moscow time on Tuesday, and successfully placed it on its orbit.
The vehicle carries 2.5 tons of materials including food, medical supplies, fuel and scientific research equipment, as well as modern men's helmets.
It is known that the fastest docking mechanism with the International Station is carried out at several stages: the spacecraft performs four laps around the earth, and then, continues six hours of navigation before docking.
However, the traditional mechanism requires the vehicle to orbit around the earth 34 times in more than 48 hours. According to workers the Mission Control center, the mechanism through which “Progress MS-09” was able to reach the International Space Station in less than four hours may be adopted later for manned spacecraft carrying astronauts to the ISS.
