Progress M-7 (russian: Прогресс М-7, italic=yes) was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

uncrewed cargo spacecraft which was launched in 1991 to resupply the

Mir ''Mir'' (russian: Мир, ; ) was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, operated by the Soviet Union and later by Russia. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to&n ...

space station. The twenty-fifth of sixty four

Progress Progress is the movement towards a refined, improved, or otherwise desired state. In the context of progressivism, it refers to the proposition that advancements in technology, science, and social organization have resulted, and by extension wi ...

spacecraft to visit Mir, it used the

Progress-M Progress-M (russian: Прогресс-М, GRAU indices 11F615A55 and 11F615A60), also known as Progress 7K-TGM, is a Russian, previously Soviet spacecraft which is used to resupply space stations. It is a variant of the Progress spacecraft, or ...

11F615A55 configuration, and had the

serial number A serial number is a unique identifier assigned incrementally or sequentially to an item, to ''uniquely'' identify it. Serial numbers need not be strictly numerical. They may contain letters and other typographical symbols, or may consist enti ...

208. It carried supplies including food, water and oxygen for the EO-8 crew aboard Mir, as well as equipment for conducting scientific research, and fuel for adjusting the station's orbit and performing manoeuvres. It also carried the second

VBK-Raduga The VBK-Raduga capsule was a reentry capsule that was used for returning materials to Earth's surface from the space station ''Mir''. They were brought to ''Mir'' in the Progress-M Progress-M (russian: Прогресс-М, GRAU indices 11F6 ...

capsule, intended to return equipment and experiment results to Earth. Progress M-7 was launched at 13:05:15 GMT on 19 March 1991, atop a

Soyuz-U2 The Soyuz-U2 (GRAU index 11A511U2) was a Soviet Union, Soviet, later Russian, carrier rocket. It was derived from the Soyuz-U, and a member of the R-7 (rocket family), R-7 family of rockets. It featured increased performance compared with the b ...

carrier rocket flying from Site 1/5 at the

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...

. It took three attempts to dock with Mir; the first of which occurred at 14:28 GMT on 21 March, and resulted in Progress M-7 approaching to within of Mir, before the attempt was aborted. During a second attempt on 23 March, approach was aborted when the spacecraft was from Mir; however, it passed within before moving away to a holding position whilst the problem was investigated. The first two attempts had used the aft docking port of the ''

Kvant-1 Kvant-1 (russian: Квант-1; English: Quantum-I/1) (37KE) was the first module to be attached in 1987 to the Mir Core Module, which formed the core of the Soviet space station ''Mir''. It remained attached to ''Mir'' until the entire space stati ...

'' module; however, it was decided to use the forward port of the core module for the next one. At 10:12:00 GMT on 26 March, the

Soyuz TM-11 Soyuz TM-11 was the eleventh expedition to the Russian Space Station Mir, using a Soyuz-TM crew transport vessel. The mission notably carried a Japanese television reporter from Tokyo Broadcasting System Television, Tokyo Broadcasting System.The ...

spacecraft which had been occupying this port undocked from it, before flying around the station and docking with Kvant-1 at 10:58:59. Progress M-7 successfully docked with Mir at 12:02:28 GMT on 28 March. During the 39 days for which Progress M-7 was docked, Mir was in an orbit of around ,

inclined Incline, inclined, inclining, or inclination may refer to: *Grade (slope), the tilt, steepness, or angle from horizontal of a topographic feature (hillside, meadow, etc.) or constructed element (road, railway, field, etc.) *Slope, the tilt, steepn ...

at 51.6 degrees. Progress M-7 undocked from Mir at 22:59:36 GMT on 6 May, and was deorbited at 16:24:00 the next day, to a destructive reentry over the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. Its Raduga capsule, which had been deployed following the deorbit burn, came down in the

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

at around 17:20 GMT; however, efforts to recover it were unsuccessful.

References

{{Orbital launches in 1991 Spacecraft launched in 1991 1991 in the Soviet Union Progress (spacecraft) missions

See also

References