The final stage of the pre-flight preparation of the MS-18 transport cargo ship continues on the Baikonur cosmodrome. Today, October 8, 2021, in the installation and test corps of the site No. 254, the planned operation of the control illustration of solar batteries of the ship power supply system took place.
With terrestrial testing of the functioning of solar panels, specialists of the Rocket and Space Corporation “Energy” named after S.P. The Queen and Space Center “South” (a branch of the center of exploitation of ground-based space infrastructure facilities are included in the state corporation “Roskosmos”) performed a regular deployment of sections of the photocells and their irradiation with powerful lamps to control the efficiency of solar energy transformation into electric.
In addition, the tests checked the tightness of the hydrogenation of the water supply system “Rodnik”, conducted a regular disinfection of the ship’s cargo compartment and started loading equipment and materials intended for delivery on board of the International Space Station (ISS).
Start of the Soyuz-2.1a carrier launch vehicle with the Progress MS-18 transport cargo ship under the program of the 79th Logistics Mission of the International Space Station is scheduled for the end of October 2021 from the Baikonur cosmodrome.