Russian Docking Module to be Deorbited and Sunk This Year

The Pirs module with the two Strela cranes. (Credits: NASA)

The Pirs module with the two Strela cranes (Credits: NASA).

Russia is planning to deorbit and sink its Pirs docking module, now attached to the International Space Station (ISS), later this year.

According to RIA Novosti,  Alexander Kaleri, head of the scientific technical center at RKK Energia, said that the undocking and subsequently deorbiting will take place to permit a new module to dock with the ISS. Another RKK Energia official, deputy chief designer Alexander Derechin, reported that the launch of the this new module, the multirole laboratory module (MLM), will take place approximately at the end of 2013.

When the time comes, the Russian crew will perform a spacewalk to facilitate the undocking of the 3,580 kilogram module that will be then deorbited and sunk prior to MLM’s arrival.  Pirs, meaning “dock” in Russian, is one of  two docking modules originally planned for the space laboratory.  Pirs was launched on September 14, 2001 on a Soyuz rocket, providing the ISS with a docking port for Soyuz capsules and Progress cargo vessels as well as ingress for spacewalks performed by the Russian crew using Orlan spacesuits. In addition, Pirs can transfer fuel to and from a docked Progress or Soyuz vehicle to either the Zvezda Service Module or Zarya Control Module.  Pirs is attached to the bottom port of the Zvezda service module, facing Earth.  It is also equipped with two Strela cargo cranes, added in two later Space Shuttle missions.

The 20,700 kilogram MLM, also known as Nauka, will be delivered by a Proton rocket. It will provide ISS with additional workstations for various instruments and experiments, especially for material science research. The module will also accommodate the European Robotic Arm and a special airlock for moving payloads from the interior to outside the space station.

Including Pirs, ISS currently has five Russian-built modules: the Zvezda (“Star”) Service Module, the Zarya (“Sunrise”) Control Module, the Poisk (“Search”) research module and the Rassvet (“Dawn”) research module.  Russia originally planned to launch four new ISS modules: MLM, a node module, and two science-power modules. That was before the ISS partners agreed to decommission the station in 2020, so it remains to be seen which of the four will actually make it to space.

About the author

Matteo Emanuelli

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Matteo Emanuelli is Feature Editor of Space Safety Magazine. He is a young professional from Italy but living in France where he works as engineer and project manager at Université de Picardie. He is member of the Space Generation Advisory Council where he is Co-Lead of the Space Safety Sustainability Project Group. Matteo also worked on a space debris removal mission at the Omsk State Technical University in Russia while he was enrolled at Politecnico di Milano.