Failure of attempts to join the ship "Progress M-15M" was caused by the error of the sensor

Failure at the first attempt to docking the M-15M freight spacecraft with the International Space Station (ISS) was due to the failure of the Kurs-on-Street System, the flight manager of the Russian ISS Cosmonaut Vladimir Solovyov told reporters, RIA Novosti reports.

“The sensory equipment of the“ course ”at a fairly large range failed. Controlling computing machines at the Progress itself considered this equipment unsifty equipment and stopped rapprochement (from the ISS), ”he said.

Experts found out the reason for the failure, worked it on the ground and reprogrammed the equipment of the ship before the second attempt to docking, which successfully passed today in the morning. Thus, the on-board computer was already ready for errors that the equipment of the Cource system could issue.

Create and docking operations were automatically carried out under the control of the specialists of the operational management group of the FSUE Poles Center for FSUE TsNIIMASH and the crew of the Russian segment of the station, the press service of Roscosmos reports.

Earlier on Tuesday night, the truck was plused from the ISS and tried to carry out a re-joining automatic mode, but he failed, since the Kurs-on equipment issued a failure signal. The ship stopped at a distance of 161 km. On the night of Thursday to Friday, positive results were finally obtained after three successful testing of the rapprochement system.

It should be noted that if the new “Cource” system did not work, the ship would most likely have not been able to join in automatic mode, since the “old” course of the “course” system was already electrically disconnected from the computer by Cosmonaut Gennady Padalka before it was plotting.

However, some experts from the industry believe that re -joining would still be possible in telepractor mode (Torah, see photo on the link ) - when the movement of the ship remotely controls the astronaut for the ISS. In this mode, for example, a manual joint of the M-08M cargo ship under the direction of Alexander Kaleri was made on October 30, 2010.

The “Cource” system, which in the future is planned to be put on freight “progress” and manned “unions”, differs from the existing “course” system in that it is based on digital technologies, almost does not use analog tracts, has less weight and energy consumption. In addition, it is made only from Russian components.