New Russian Docking Module Arrives At International Space Station

To make room for Prichal, the uncrewed Progress 78 cargo craft undocked from Nauka at 6:23 a.m. Thursday, November 25, and burned up upon reentry in the Earth’s atmosphere later that morning. Prichal, named for the Russian word for pier, has five available docking ports to accommodate multiple Russian spacecraft and provide fuel transfer capability to the Nauka module. Named for the Russian word for “science,” Nauka launched to the space station in July. The modified Progress transport spacecraft that guided Prichal to the station will remain in place until late December.

On November 24, 2021, at 16:06:36 Moscow Time, a launch vehicle Soyuz-2.1b lifted-off from Launch Pad No.31 of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying the Cargo Transportation Spacecraft-Module (CTSCM) Progress M-NM designed to deliver the Node Module (NM) Prichal to the International Space Station (ISS).