Second Attempt hits the mark

Here comes Progress.

Sunday morning about 10-something am MDT, the Russian mission control team managed to get the Progress resupply capsule in position for a second attempt at docking with ISS. The attempt was a success, and the Expedition 24 team is busy unloading the supplies from the storage capsule.

It turned out that one of the television systems aboard the spacecraft had unexpectedly blocked the rendezvous & docking radio signals (called TORU), which triggered an automatic system preventing the spacecraft from nearing the ISS. Which of course means that the Progress control system worked exactly as it was supposed to, preventing an untimely crash. A new procedure was developed for the second attempt. No doubt the Russian teams will be working hard to prevent this from happening again.

The next big event scheduled for Expedition 24 will be on July 26th when two cosmonauts will make an EVA to do some maintenance outside the station.