Baikonur starts testing Progress M-13M freighter

MOSCOW, August 28 (Itar-Tass) —— The Progress M-13M freighter reached the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan on Saturday. “Representatives of the Energia Corporation unloaded the spaceship from the train and prepared it for testing,” the Federal Space Agency said on Sunday.

The spaceship may fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in October.

“The ISS has sufficient reserves to last until the arrival of the freighter in October,” Russian mission supervisor Vladimir Solovyov said on August 24, after the crash of Progress M-12M. “There are fuel reserves for keeping the ISS orbit at a due height [currently, the ISS stays about 400 kilometers above the Earth]. There are sufficient reserves of oxygen, water and food, too.”

Progress M-12M launched from Baikonur on Wednesday failed to reach the designated orbit because of the engine halt in the third stage of the Soyuz-U rocket. Its fragments scattered over highland areas of the Republic of Altai.

 

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