ESA / Thomas Pesquet
Earlier today, the unmanned Progress MS-16 capsule undocked from the International Space Station (ISS)...bringing along with it Russia's Pirs module which had been attached to the outpost since September of 2001. Departure of the Progress freighter and the ISS component took place at 6:55 AM, Eastern Daylight Time (3:55 AM, Pacific Daylight Time), and destructive re-entry into Earth's atmosphere for the two vessels occurred after 10:01 AM, EDT (7:01 AM, PDT).
Pirs' removal from the ISS clears the way for the arrival of the Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM), Russia's newest space station segment that launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan last Wednesday (July 21), and will dock to the orbital outpost this Thursday, July 29.
Originally scheduled to lift off in 2007, Nauka's flight was delayed for over a decade due to financial issues and technical problems (such as the piping in MLM's propulsion system being contaminated by metallic dust—causing a full hardware replacement to be carried out). Technical problems were also an issue shortly after Nauka's launch...as additional hiccups with its main propulsion system delayed the module from conducting its first orbit-raising maneuver by 24 hours. This also postponed Pirs' removal from last Friday (July 23) to this morning.
With Pirs gone, this seems to imply that Roscosmos has the utmost confidence in Nauka safely docking to the ISS three days from now. It's only fitting that a space station module with a problem-plagued history as significant as that of MLM would have a nail-biting arrival at its orbital destination.
Here's hoping that this nail-biting arrival will lead to triumph for the ISS program and cheers at Roscosmos this Thursday. Godspeed, Nauka.
Roscosmos
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