The five-ton Prichal docking module arrived at the International Space Station at 10:19 a.m. EST, propelled by a modified Russian Progress propulsion compartment. They docked to the Nauka module on the Earth-facing side of the Russian segment two days after lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, November 24 at 8:06 a.m. EST (6:06 p.m. Baikonur time). The spacecraft was flying about 260 miles (420 kilometers) over Ukraine at the time of docking.
To make room for Prichal, the uncrewed Progress 78 cargo craft undocked from Nauka at 6:23 a.m. Thursday, November 25, and burned up upon reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere later that morning.
Prichal, named after the Russian word for pier, has five available docking ports to accommodate multiple Russian spacecraft and provide fuel transfer capability to the Nauka module. Named for the Russian word for “science,” Nauka launched to the space station in July.
The modified Progress transport spacecraft that guided Prichal to the station will remain in place until late December.
On November 24, 2021, at 16:06:36 Moscow Time, a launch vehicle Soyuz-2.1b lifted off from Launch Pad No.31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying the Cargo Transportation Spacecraft-Module (CTSCM) Progress M-NM designed to deliver the Node Module (NM) Prichal to the International Space Station (ISS).
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