ISSCOM 25 August 2003 (038)

Russian week: This week the Russians execute some important operations to secure the operational continuation of the International Space Station.
This involves the replacement of 1 of the 2 freighters which are now docked at the ISS: 1. Progress-M47 is now docked at the aft docking port of the Service Module Zvezda. Meanwhile the crew transferred the last part of the oxygen supply on board of that freighter into the station and they are loading as much as possible garbage and no longer needed things into the freighter to be burnt up in the atmosphere during re-entry.
Pr-M47 will separate from the ISS on 28.08.03 at (probably) 0143UTC. The Pr-M47 will free the docking port for the next freighter Progress-M48.
2. Pr-M48 has to be launched from Baykonur on 29.08.03 at 0147UTC on a 2-days flight to the ISS. The estimated docking has to take place on 31.08.03 at 0345UTC.
Communications: Mainly these are handled on the American Ku- and S-bands so via the American TDRS-es. An amount of traffic from and into the Russian segment is routed via the Russian systems Regul and Voskhod-M (so VHF-1 on 143.625 mc). Originally Regul had been designed to be used with the old Russian geostationary comm.
satellites of the Luch-type (so the Altairs). Such satellites are no longer operational, but Regul still has some alternatives. Regul can communicate directly with a number of Russian tracking stations. For telemetry the Russian comm. satellites Molniya can be used. 2 Transponders of these satellites are allocated for the handling of telemetry traffic directly from the Service Module Zvezda. The orbit of this type of satellite is elliptical with a perigee of approx. 400 KM and an apogee of approx. 40000 KM. To make communications between Zvezda and Molniya possible a radio bearing procedure is necessary. In fact the main purpose of the Molniya is the relay of traffic like TV, Radio, etc. via the system Orbita to enable the Russians to cover the most northern parts of the Russian territory. These satellites are also used for the communications between point-to-point stations, for instance between Russian tracking stations for manned space flight and MCC-M (TsUP-M). (There is no need for the tracking station Shcholkovo to use Molniya due to the short distance with TsUP and the existing line network.) Telemetry signals of the so called BITS-2 system can also be transmitted directly to the tracking stations (NIP-s). Regularly these transmissions can be monitored during passes of the ISS within reach of the Netherlands. (I suppose that this monitoring also is possible in some regions of the U.S.A. for some American tracking stations are able to receive signals like that.) The main stream of the Zvezda module transmits on 630.125 mc, the secondary stream on 628.125 mc. The main stream of the FGB (Zarya module) transmits on 633.850 mc.
Confusion caused by NASA self-conceit or ignorance.
Many interested persons use to their entire satisfaction the NASA status reports of the ISS. Those reports give very good information, but ridiculously mix up Progress serial numbers. For instance the most recent status report refers to the freighters Progress-10, Progress-11 and Progress-12. (Status report nr. 03.39, paragraph 5) In the past there have been remarks, also by prominent insiders, but this did not help. The use of these names has been caused by the fact that in the official ISS schedule the freighters get the abbreviation 'P' and a number. It is wrong to write the word or name Progress plus that ISS schedule number. Using the word Progress demands the use of the official Russian name of the ship. So it would be correct to give only the 'P' plus the number and between brackets the real Russian name.
It is quite normal that the Russians use their own names and serial numbers of their products and objects and these are fully respected and even registered by official international organisations, like for instance the IFRB in Geneva.
Even a scientist that cannot be praised enough, Dr. Kelso, does not refrain from the Russian names and numbers.
The freighters of the type Progress-M1 are modifications of the older type Progress-M and designed especially to be used with the ISS, but the Russians still have some Progress-M freighters in stock and the situation in that economically harassed country demands the use of all still utilizable stuff.
History: And of course a lot of present NASA people still had to be born or at least to grow up so for them I want to lift a little corner of the veil: Progress-10 choose open space in 1980 to serve space station Salyut-6.
Progress-11 did the same in the fall of that year, also to bring all what was necessary to the Salyut-6 and the Progress-12 concluded the logistic operations for the Sal-6 in the spring of 1981.

Chris van den Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202