Progress MS-16

The Progress-MS is an uncrewed freighter based on the Progress-M featuring improved avionics. This improved variant first launched on 21 December 2015. It has the following improvements:[4][5][6][7]

• New external compartment that enables it to deploy satellites. Each compartment can hold up to four launch containers. First time installed on Progress MS-03.
• Enhanced redundancy thanks to the addition of a backup system of electrical motors for the docking and sealing mechanism.
• Improved Micrometeoroid (MMOD) protection with additional panels in the cargo compartment.
• Luch Russian relay satellites link capabilities enable telemetry and control even when not in direct view of ground radio stations.
• GNSS autonomous navigation enables real time determination of the status vector and orbital parameters dispensing with the need of ground station orbit determination.
• Real time relative navigation thanks to direct radio data exchange capabilities with the space station.
• New digital radio that enables enhanced TV camera view for the docking operations.
• The Ukrainian Chezara Kvant-V on board radio system and antenna/feeder system has been replaced with a Unified Command Telemetry System (UCTS).
• Replacement of the Kurs A with Kurs NA digital system.

A Soyuz-2.1a will launch Progress MS-16 to the International Space Station from Baikonur Cosmodrome Site 31 on 15 February 2020 on a fast-track trajectory.[1][2][3] Around 3 hours 20 minutes after the launch, Progress MS-16 will automatically dock to the Russian Orbital Segment of the ISS, where it is expected to remain until June 2021.

On February 4, Roskosmos said that Progress MS-16 had been installed back into its processing stand inside the assembly building at Site 254 for final pre-launch operations and loading of fresh food items in its cargo bay.

The ship's cargo included 600 kilograms of propellant for refueling, 420 liters of drinking water in the Rodnik system, 40.5 kilograms of pressurized gases with extra nitrogen supplies and 1,400 kilograms of various equipment and supplies, including the repair kit with reinforced glue patches for temporary sealing of the Transfer Chamber, PrK, in the Zvezda Service Module, SM, Roskosmos said.[8]

The Progress MS-16 spacecraft is loaded with 2,460.5 kg (5,424 lb) of cargo, with 1,400 kg (3,100 lb) of this being dry cargo.

• Dry cargo: 1,400 kg (3,100 lb)
• Propellant: 600 kg (1,300 lb)
• Pressurized Gases: 40.5 kg (89 lb)
• Drinking Water: 420 kg (930 lb)

The Progress MS-16 is scheduled to remain docked at the station through June 2021, when it will depart with trash and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere for destruction over the South Pacific Ocean. The Pirs module will also be deorbited along with it to make way for the Nauka module, launching on April 20th, 2021 (unconfirmed).

• Uncrewed spaceflights to the International Space Station