The Pirs module undocked from the ISS

In accordance with the flight program of the Russian segment of the International Space Station, today, on July 26, 2021, the bundle from the Progress MS-16 transport cargo ship and the docking compartment-the Pirs module with the ISS was undocked. Now the ship and the module are in autonomous flight and are preparing to enter the Earth's atmosphere.

Upon completion of the operations to prepare for undocking at 13:53 Moscow time, specialists at the TsNIIMash Flight Control Center (part of the Roscosmos State Corporation) a command was issued to undock the ship, then, according to the standard program of object divergence, a bundle of the Progress MS-16 cargo ship and the Pier module departed from the nadir port of the Zvezda module of the Russian segment of the ISS at 13:55:33 Moscow time. After the withdrawal to a safe distance from the station, the specialists of the Main Operational Control Group (RSC Energia, part of Roscosmos) began a controlled reduction of the ship and the module from near-Earth orbit.

According to the calculations of the station's ballistic flight support service, the Progress MS-16 spacecraft engines will be turned on at 17: 01 Moscow time and, having worked out the required braking impulse at 120 m / s, will transfer the ship to the descent to the planet. As expected, at 17:51 Moscow time, the fireproof structural elements of the ship and the module will fall in the design zone of the non-navigable region of the Pacific Ocean. The estimated area of the fall of unburned fragments of the ship is located 3,630 km from the city of Wellington and 5,870 km from the city of Santiago.

The State Corporation "Roscosmos" has completed all the necessary procedures to establish this area as temporarily dangerous for navigation of sea and aircraft flights.

The Pirs module was used as a docking bay for Russian ships — both manned Soyuz and cargo Progresses. In addition, until November 2020, cosmonauts performed spacewalks from the Pier under the Russian ISS program, and in November 2020 and June of this year, Russian crew members used the neighboring Poisk module for these purposes. Now its place will be taken by the multi-purpose laboratory module "Science", which was successfully launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome on July 21, 2021 and is on its way to the International Space Station.