n accordance with the program of flights to the International Space Station, today, February 15, 2021, at 07:45:05 Moscow time, a successful launch of the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle with a transport cargo was performed from the launcher No. 6 of the site No. 31 of the Baikonur cosmodrome. by the Progress MS-16 spacecraft. According to the received telemetry information, after 8 minutes and 48 seconds, the ship’s normal separation from the third stage of the carrier was recorded, the solar batteries and antennas were revealed.

The Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle has successfully launched a Russian spacecraft into its target orbit. Specialists of the Main Operational Group for Flight Control of the Russian Segment of the International Space Station in Korolev began to control its flight.

Orbit parameters of the Progress MS-16 cargo vehicle:

Circulation period – 88.55 minutes;
orbital inclination – 51.67 degrees;
minimum orbit height – 193.06 km;
the maximum orbit height is 241.16 km.

The flight of the Progress MS-16 cargo vehicle to the International Space Station will take place according to a two-day scheme, docking to the Pirs module of the Russian segment is scheduled for February 17, 2021 at 09:20 Moscow time. Docking is planned to be carried out automatically under the control of specialists from the Mission Control Center (part of the Roscosmos State Corporation) and the Russian crew members of the ISS-64 expedition – Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov .

The new “space truck” carries 600 kg of refueling fuel, 420 liters of drinking water from the Rodnik system and 40.5 kg of compressed gases with additional nitrogen reserves, as well as about 1,400 kg of various equipment and materials, including the resource equipment of onboard control systems. and life support, packing for space experiments, medical and hygiene controls, garments, standard rations and fresh food for crew members.

The cargo compartment also contains a repair and recovery kit, consisting of a set of reinforcing linings with an adhesive bond, intended for temporary sealing of the detected defects in the housing of the transition chamber of the Zvezda service module. As part of the implementation of the Russian program of scientific and applied research, the ship contains equipment for the following scientific experiments:

The “Neurolab” packs are intended for carrying out a series of medical experiments “Pilot-T” to study the influence of long-term space flight factors on the quality of professional activity of cosmonauts;
the materials of the “Aseptic” experiment will make it possible to develop means of ensuring sterility when performing bioexperiments in space flight;
the device “Photobioreactor” will be used to study the possibility of obtaining food and oxygen from algae in microgravity;
the “Cascade” equipment will serve as a laboratory for the development of effective methods of biotechnological production of cell cultures in microgravity conditions;
Biodegradation probes will monitor the composition of microorganisms in the ISS atmosphere to study their effect on structural materials in space.
At the moment, the crew of the 64th long-term expedition, consisting of Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov, Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, NASA astronauts Kathleen Rubins , Michael Hopkins , Victor Glover , Shannon Walker and JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, is working on board the International Space Station.