[sarex] ISS Progress 26 Launches to Station

[Arthur Rowe]

SUBMITTED BY ARTHUR N1ORC - AMSAT A/C #31468

*ISS Progress 26 Launches to Station*

Illustration of the space station with Progress 26, Progress 25 and 
SoyuzImage above: Artist's rendering of the International Space Station 
showing the ISS Progress 26, the ISS Progress 25 and a Soyuz spacecraft 
docked to the station. Image credit: NASA TV

TO VIEW IMAGE GO TO:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

The ISS Progress 26 (P26) craft launched Thursday from the Baikonur 
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 1:34 p.m. EDT. The P26 vehicle is loaded 
with 5,111 pounds of food, fuel, air, water and supplies. P26 is 
scheduled to dock with the station on Aug. 5.

On the station, Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Olog 
Kotov reconfigured the Kurs automated rendezvous system in the Zvezda 
Service Module in preparation for the P26 docking.

Wednesday’s undocking of the ISS Progress 24 (P24) was successfully 
completed at 10:07 a.m. Configuration issues resulted in the Progress 
not doing the separation burn, but the deorbit burn occurred on time. 
P24 was about four miles from the station when the deorbit burn began a 
little after 2:40 p.m. Wednesday, sending the Progress and its load of 
trash to destruction in the Earth's atmosphere.

Flight Engineer Clay Anderson conducted routine periodic inspections of 
the station's smoke detectors Thursday and Kotov did routine air 
sampling in the station. Yurchikhin and Anderson continued to pack items 
no longer needed on the station for return aboard space shuttle 
Endeavour during its STS-118 mission. Anderson also held a conference 
with the STS-118 crew to discuss spacewalk preparations.

+ Read more about the ISS Progress 26 Launch 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/exp15_progress26_advancer.html>
+ Read more about Expedition 15 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition15/index.html>
+ View crew daily timelines 
<http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/timelines/index.html>