Spacecraft Progress M-20M submerged in Pacific Ocean

11 February 2014, 20:52

A supply spacecraft Progress M-20M that was undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) on February 3 and then sent to a solo flight for an experiment, was finally submerged in the waters of the Pacific ocean, said a representative of RKA Mission Control Center.

'An operation of Progress M-20M utilization has finished. The spacecraft was destroyed during the reentry and residual parts sank in the waters of the Pacific Ocean,' said the representative.

Progress M-20M has been docked with ISS since June 28, 2013. It was undocked on February 3, 2014 to take part in a scientific program 'Izgib'.

As it's described in the description of the experiment, 'during the flights to ISS, micro-accelerations may occur; the rate of the latter can exceed legitimate values for many experiments with gravity sensible environment. That's why there should be a special control upon these rates. We also should elaborate mathematical models that will help us to define current rates of micro-accelerations and foresee micro-gravity rate on the board of ISS in a particular period of time.'

'Izgib' experiment was launched during the ISS-1 expedition and has been continuing till today. During this period (from ISS-1 to ISS-26) there has been 546 hours of communication and some three gigabytes of information have been received. It has been proved that convection appears because of micro-accelerations that affect ISS as well as because of accelerations that appear when ISS orbit rises and Progress M-20M, and Soyuz spacecrafts dock to the ISS.

Voice of Russia, TASS

Source: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_02_11/ Spacecraft-Progress-M-20M- submerged-in-Pacific-Ocean-5350/