Russia Nauka laboratory module now has a final date of departure. The module will be launched for the International Space Station (ISS) on July 21. The Russian space agency Roscosmos confirmed that the new module will take off from Site 200 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Proton-M carrier rocket.
The module will take around 8 days to reach the ISS, after which it will dock at the nadir port of Russia’s Zvezda service module. At 9:25 a.m. EDT (1325 GMT) on July 29, the module will be docked to the space laboratory.
The undocking of Russia’s Pirs docking module is slated for July 23, if the Nauka launch goes as planned. Cosmonauts aboard the ISS have been working on decommissioning the Pirs module in recent spacewalks in order to create parking space for the new module.
Nauka to add great value
Nauka is a research module for the Russian segment of the ISS. It is built by RSC Energia together with Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. The module is designed to amplify the functionality of the Russian segment of the space laboratory.
“The Nauka module was created on the constructive and technological basis of the Zarya Functional Cargo Block employing the experience of designing a transport supply vehicle for the Salyut crewed scientific stations and modules for retrofitting the Mir orbital complex,” Roscosmos said in the statement.
“After the commissioning of the new module, the Russian segment will receive additional volumes for the workplaces and storage of cargo, places for water and oxygen regeneration equipment, improve the conditions of cosmonauts’ stay, as well as increase the safety of the entire ISS crew,” the statement adds.
New robotic arm for ISS
The European Robotic Arm (ERA) will also be launched alongside Nauka. It will be responsible for transferring small payloads directly from inside to the outside of the ISS. This will help astronauts cut down spacewalk time significantly.
The ERA is completely made in Europe and is largely funded by the Dutch government. It was built more than three decades ago but couldn’t make it to the ISS during three planned missions due to technical glitches.
