Progress MS-03
Progress MS-03 (), identified by NASA as Progress 64P, is a Progress spacecraft to be used by Roscosmos to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). It is the first Progress MS to have an external compartment for releasing satellites. History. Progress was the first cargo spacecraft to fly in space (1978), and also the first to bring freight back to Earth, thanks to a Raduga capsule. It was developed to supply the Salyut 6 space station and which was subsequently supply the crews of Salyut 7, Mir and from the International Space Station. It enabled space station crews to  stay in space by bringing consumables (food, water, fuel, oxygen) and spare parts. The Progress-MS is a uncrewed freighter based on the Progress-M featuring improved avionics. This improved variant first launched on 21 December 2015. It has the following improvements: Pre-launch. The launch of Progress MS-03 was originally scheduled for on 30 April 2016, but was postponed as a result of an overall reshuffle of the flight manifest for the International Space Station. At the beginning of June 2016, the mission was rescheduled from 4 July to 17 July 2016. Launch. Progress MS-03 was launched on 16  July 2016 at 21:41:45 (UTC) on a Soyuz-U from the Baikonur Site 31/6 in Kazakhstan. At the time of launch, the International Space Station was flying at 420 km over Eastern Chad. Docking. The Progress MS-03 mission used the two-day, 34-orbit trip to the station instead of the currently available six-hour rendezvous profile. Progress MS-03 docked with the nadir docking port of the Pirs module on 19 July 2016 at 00:20 UTC. Cargo. The Progress MS-03 spacecraft delivered 2,425 kg of cargo and supplies to the International Space Station for the six members of the Expedition  48 crew. The following is a breakdown of cargo bound for the ISS: Undocking and decay. The Progress MS-03 cargo ship undocked from the Pirs, on 31 January 2017, at 14:25 UTC, Roskosmos announced. The three-minute braking maneuver was scheduled to begin at 17:34 UTC, followed by reentry into the dense atmosphere at 18:10 UTC. Surviving debris of the spacecraft were calculated to impact the Pacific Ocean at 18:24 UTC on the same day.