The Progress MS-35 cargo ship has departed from Baikonur for the International Space Station. Along with supplies for the crew, it is carrying equipment for an experiment with a remotely controlled robot. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

How the launch unfolded

The Soyuz-2.1b rocket lifted off on 16 September at 16:34 Moscow time (18:34 Astana time) from the launch complex of Site 31. Roscosmos said the ship reached its designated orbit as planned, separated from the rocket's third stage and deployed its solar panels and antennas.

How much cargo the ship will deliver

In total, Progress MS-35 will deliver more than 2.4 tonnes of cargo. These include:

  • 01842 kg of fuel;
  • 02420 kg of water;
  • 0350 kg of oxygen;
  • 04275 kg of food;
  • 05medications, hygiene supplies, equipment and consumables for the station's operation.

The Teleandroid experiment

A separate part of the cargo is intended for scientific experiments, including Teleandroid. As part of the experiment, cosmonauts will test whether an anthropomorphic robot can perform certain operations in open space under remote control.

For this purpose, a special cosmonaut workstation, an exoskeleton, was sent to the station. With its help, the operator will be able to control the robot's movements. Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina has completed training to work as the operator.

The Teleandroid itself will arrive at the ISS on the next cargo ship.

During the experiment, the crew plans to test whether the robot can take objects from a storage location, hand a tool to a cosmonaut and perform various operations with them.

When docking is scheduled

The docking of Progress MS-35 with the Poisk module of the station's Russian segment is scheduled for 19 September at 16:46 Moscow time.

Earlier, Kursiv reported that Russia will pay Kazakhstan more than 55 billion tenge for the lease of Baikonur in 2027.

And the day before, Roscosmos head Dmitry Bakanov said that Kazakhstan's initiative to transform Baikonur into an international space hub would not affect cooperation with Russia.