Cargo spacecraft "Progress M-15M"

Description:

• PROGRESS-M 15M transports nearly three tons of supplies to the station. The "dry" cargo tucked aboard the Progress amounts to 2,703 pounds (1,226 kg) in the form of food, spare parts, life support gear and experiment hardware. The refueling module carries 1,988 pounds (902 kg) of propellant for transfer into the Russian segment of the complex to feed the station's maneuvering thrusters. The vessel also has 926 pounds (420 kg) of water and 110 pounds (50 kg) of oxygen and air. It'll remain attached to the station through the end of July 2012.

Mission Report:

• It is ISS mission 47P, to deliver supplies to the International Space Station .
  
• The Progress M-15M cargo ship was launched on Apr 20, 2012 on ISS mission 47P into a 187 x 230 km orbit, soon adjusted to 245 x 305 km x 51.6 deg. Progress M-15M is spacecraft tail number 415. It docked with the Pirs module at 1439 UTC on Apr 22.
• On Jul 22, 2012 at 2026 UTC the Progress M-15M cargo vehicle undocked from Pirs; it was to return to ISS on Jul 24 in a test of the new Kurs-NA rendezvous system.
  At 0123 UTC on Jul 24 the Kurs-NA failed to start up correctly and the rendezvous was postponed, with Progress M-15M flying past the station at a distance of 3 km.
• Progress M-15M redocked with Pirs at 0101 UTC on Jul 29, 2012 in a successful test of the new Kurs-NA automatic rendezvous system. The cargo ship undocked once more on Jul 30 at 2119 UTC; on Aug 6 it was in a 402 x 440 km orbit.
• The old Progress M-15M cargo vehicle, after three weeks of independent flight involving Radar-Progress experiments using thruster burns to study the ionosphere, was deorbited over the Pacific on Aug 20.