[FPSPACE] Russian freighter docks at station; TORU failure had made it no-fault-tolerant

[James Oberg]

Florida today: 'Flame Trench' space blog

Live in orbit: Russian freighter docks at station 

Feb 7 // posted by Todd Halvorson at 9:30 AM

   A robotic Russian space freighter just docked at the International Space Station two days after launching from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
   Loaded with more than 2.5 tons of fuel, air, water and other supplies and equipment, the Progress 28 cargo carrier linked up with the station at 9:38 a.m. EST -- about five hours prior to the scheduled launch of shuttle Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center. 
   Atlantis and a crew of seven astronauts are scheduled to dock at the station at 12:24 p.m. EST Saturday -- if they launch on time this afternoon, that is.
   The Progress is crammed full with 1,165 pounds of propellant, more than 100 pounds of oxygen, about 925 pounds of water and 2,925 pounds of dry cargo.
   The cargo carrier will replace Progress 27, which was undocked from the station Monday. Filled with station trash, that craft will burn up during a destructive atmospheric reentry on Feb. 15. 


Jim Oberg adds: good thing Kurs worked, because TORU failed a pre-docking systems test (On-Orbot Status Report, Feb 6):

   Last night, when TsUP-M performed a TORU system test on the SM, it failed, showing zero output voltage on the primary VHF receiver. During the next ground pass (Daily Orbit 4), when the output voltage was still 0 on the primary VHF receiver, Moscow switched to the backup VHF receiver, on which it was nominal. The TORU system test was nominal on the backup VHF receiver. [TORU is still available for docking, but now zero-fault tolerant. Per Flight Rules D2-8 para. D, D2-10 para. B.2 docking is still possible since the Kurs system is available. Since TORU is a backup to KURS and is only used if the crew needs to perform manual docking, Progress 28P is still GO for docking tomorrow morning at ~9:38am EST.].