Progress MS-30 to re-supply ISS

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Progress MS-30 to re-supply ISS

The first Russian mission to resupply the International Space Station, ISS, in 2025 (and the first ISS launch of the year) lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, in the early hours, local time, on February 28. The Progress MS-30 cargo ship is on a two-day rendezvous trip to the orbital outpost.

Previous cargo mission: Progress MS-29

launch

Progress MS-30 mission at a glance:

Spacecraft designation(s)	Progress MS-30, 11F615 No. 460, ISS mission 91P
Launch vehicle	Soyuz-2-1, 14S53 No. M15000-076
Payload fairing	SZB: 11S517A2.1000A1-0 No. M15000-137
Launch site	Baikonur, Site 31, Pad 6
Mission	Cargo delivery to the ISS' Expedition 72
Launch date and time	2025 Feb. 28, 00:24:27.328 Moscow Time (actual)
Docking date and time	2025 March 2, 02:03 Moscow Time (planned)
Docking destination	ISS, Russian Segment, Zvezda Service Module (SM), aft port
Deliverable payload mass	2,599 kilograms

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Progress MS-30 delivery mission

According to Roskosmos, Progress MS-30 was scheduled to deliver a total of 2,599 kilograms of cargo to the station, including 1,179 kilograms of hardware and equipment for the station, materials for experiments, food, clothing, medical and hygiene supplies in its pressurized cargo compartment. At the same time, the vehicle's tanker module was also filled with 950 kilograms of propellant for refueling (INSIDER CONTENT) the station's propulsion system (INSIDER CONTENT), 420 kilograms of drinking water and 50 kilograms of compressed nitrogen for replenishing the atmosphere of the ISS.

One critical item to be shipped to the Russian Segment with the Progress MS-30 mission was an Orlan-MKS No. 6 spacesuit to replace one of the out-of-warranty suits aboard the Russian Segment of the ISS.

The deliverable payloads included materials and hardware for science experiments and scientific programs identified as Aseptik, Biodegradatsiya, Virtual, Kaskad, Lazma, Mirazh, according to Roskosmos.

Progress MS-30 launch campaign

kis

The Progress MS-30 spacecraft is being prepared for shipment to Baikonur in September 2024.

The assembly of the spacecraft at RKK Energia's ZEM plant in Korolev near Moscow was completed in September 2024, and, after a series of factory tests, ZKI, the vehicle was shipped to Kazakhstan by rail at the end of that month. The spacecraft was reported reaching its processing facility at Site 254 in Baikonur on Sept. 30, 2024. Before the end of 2024, the launch date for the mission shifted from Feb. 12 to Feb. 28, 2025.

The processing of the spacecraft for launch started in mid-January 2025. On January 23, after completion of autonomous radio checks in the anechoic chamber and integrated tests, the spacecraft was transported to the vacuum chamber facility within Site 254 for air leak checks. After completion of testing, the spacecraft was returned to its processing stand on Jan. 29, 2025. On Feb. 7, 2025, specialists performed test of the ship's solar panels by exposing them to an array of lights.

The spacecraft was then transported to the fueling station at Site 31, where the loading of propellant components and pressurized gases started on Feb. 16, 2025. By February 18, the fully fueled spacecraft was returned to the processing facility at Site 254 and re-installed in its checkout stand for final operations and loading of fresh food and onboard documentation into its pressurized cargo compartment, Roskosmos said.

On Feb. 20, 2025, the spacecraft was attached to the launch vehicle adapter providing interface with the Soyuz rocket and the next day, the cargo ship was lowered into horizontal position and rolled inside its payload fairing assembly. (The fairing featured an insignia dedicated to the 100th birthday of Pavel Belyaev, the commander of the Voskhod-2 mission which achived the world's first spacewalk in 1965.)

The integrated payload section was then put back into vertical position for final tests and, on Feb. 22, 2025, it was lowered into horizontal position once again, loaded on a rail trailer and transported to the vehicle assembly building at Site 31 for integration with the rocket, which was completed on February 24.Later in the day, the State Commission overseeing the campaign authorized the rollout of the vehicle to the launch pad on the morning of Feb. 25, 2025, which took place as planned.

pad

Progress MS-30 launch profile

A Soyuz-2-1a rocket, carrying the Progress MS-30 cargo ship, lifted off as planned from Pad 6 at Site 31 in Baikonur on Feb. 28, 2025, at 00:24:27.328 Moscow Time (4:24 p.m. EST).

Following a vertical liftoff under the combined thrust of the four RD-107 engines on the first stage and the single RD-108 of the second (core) stage, the launch vehicle headed eastward from Baikonur matching its ground track to an orbit inclined 51.67 degrees to the plane of the Equator.

The four first-stage boosters separated 1 minute 58 seconds after liftoff, at an altitude of around 43 kilometers, followed by the split and drop of the two halves of the payload fairing slightly more than a minute later at an altitude of around 91 kilometers, just above the dense atmosphere and around 200 kilometers downrange. In the meantime, the second stage continued firing until 4 minutes and 47 seconds into the flight, bringing the vehicle to around 143 kilometers above the planet and a speed of around four kilometers per second, some 500 kilometers downrange from the launch site.

The third stage then ignited moments before the separation of the second stage, firing its RD-0110 engine through a lattice structure connecting the two boosters and ensuring a continuous thrust during the separation process. A fraction of a second later, the boosters of the second and third stage parted ways and the aft cylindrical section of the third stage split into three segments and dropped off, ensuring the fall of the second stage and the aft section into the same area on the ground.

The third stage completed firing its engine and released the cargo ship into an initial parking orbit 8 minutes 49 seconds after liftoff at 00:33:16 Moscow Time. The mission targeted the 240.0 by 193.1-kilometer initial orbit with an inclination 51.67 degrees toward the Equator and a period of 88.53 minutes.

At the time of the Progress MS-30 liftoff, the ISS was crossing the Southern Atlantic on a northwesterly track in the 415.049 by 433.573-kilometer orbit.

Progress rendezvous profile

Progress MS-30 was scheduled to reach the station on March 2, 2025, around 02:03 Moscow Time, docking at the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module, SM, a part of the Russian ISS Segment.

(To be continued)

This page is maintained by Anatoly Zak; last update: February 27, 2025

Page editor: Alain Chabot; last edit: February 27, 2025

Specialists work near the cargo loading hatch of the Progress MS-30 spacecraft. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos

The Progress MS-30 fairing featured an insignia dedicated to the 100th birthday of Pavel Belyaev, the commander of the Voskhod-2 mission which achived the world's first spacewalk in 1965 and had its 60th anniversary in March 2025, commemorated with another logo on the opposite side of the same fairing. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos

A Soyuz-2-1a rocket with the Progress MS-30 spacecraft emerges from the vehicle assembly building on its way to the launch pad on the morning of Feb. 25, 2025. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos