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Monday, July 26, 2021
THE HAPPENING WORLD: After Almost Twenty Years, Pirs Docking Module Departs International Space Station
Pirs, attached to a Progress cargo spacecraft, undocks from the ISS at 6:55 am EDT. pic.twitter.com/d0rB3qLQ0L
— Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) July 26, 2021
The Pirs module was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) on 2001-09-14. It has supported numerous dockings of Soyuz and Progress craft, and as the airlock for many spacewalks from the Russian segment of the station. It is being towed away from the station by a departing Progress cargo ship, which will deorbit and burn up in the atmosphere later today. The operation frees up the docking port for the Nauka laboratory module, expected to arrive at the station in a few days.
There had been speculation that vacuum welding between the module and its ISS attach point might interfere with undocking, but this has been shown to be unfounded. The attach point will be inspected by cameras on the station's robotic arm to verify it is ready to receive the new module.
Update:
The time has come. At this moment, temperatures are building to unsurvivable levels for #Pirs and #ProgressMS16. The components that do make it will now splash harmlessly into Pacific at ~10:51 EDT / 14:51 UTC.
— Chris G - NSF (@ChrisG_NSF) July 26, 2021
Goodbye, Pirs, and thank you.
ARTICLE: https://t.co/pvknuTsSrM
2021-07-26 19:13 UTC
Posted at July 26, 2021 10:59