Site map

Site update log

About this site

About the author

Mailbox

Searching for details:

Related pages:

Progress-MS refueling system

INSIDER CONTENT

Progress-ROS

INSIDER CONTENT

ISS in 2025

INSIDER CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE! | ADVERTISE! | DONATE!

Progress MS-33 to re-supply ISS

The first launch to originate from the restored pad at Site 31 in Baikonur after a service platform collapse in November 2025, was assigned to the same mission that had to be postponed from December. The launch of the Progress MS-33 cargo ship was reset for March 22, 2026, or three months after the planned liftoff in the pre-accident schedule. It became the first Russian cargo mission heading to the ISS in more than six months.

Previous cargo mission: Progress MS-31

SUPPORT THIS PROJECT!

Progress MS-33 mission at a glance:

According to Roskosmos, Progress MS-33 was scheduled to deliver more than 2,500 kilograms of cargo to the station, including 393 kilograms of hardware for repairs and maintenance of the station's systems, 52 kilograms of equipment for scientific experiments (INSIDER CONTENT), 619 kilograms of food, 135 kilograms of hygiene supplies and 12 kilograms of medical equipment, including special loads-inducing suits for the crew to combat the effects of weightlessness. At the same time, the ship's tanker module was also filled with 828 kilograms of propellant for refueling (INSIDER CONTENT) the station's propulsion system (INSIDER CONTENT), 420 kilograms of drinking water and 50 kilograms of oxygen for replenishing the atmosphere of the ISS.

The most significant scientific payload carried aboard Progress MS-33 was the 47-kilogram Solntse-Teragerts radio-telescope developed at the Lebedev Physics Institute. The instrument, featuring eight detectors, was designed to monitor the Sun for at least two years after being installed onto a special movable platform on the exterior of the Russian Segment by spacewalking cosmonauts during Expedition 74 in the Spring of 2026. As of February 2026, the Russian VKD-66 spacewalk was expected in May and VKD-67 in October of that year.

Progress MS-33 launch campaign

The Progress MS-33 mission was initially planned in March 2026, but by 2024, it was advanced to Nov. 20, 2025. Before the end of 2024, the launch was delayed to Dec. 19, 2025. In early November 2025, the launch was postponed from Dec. 19 to Dec. 21, 2025.

The spacecraft departed RKK Energia's ZEM plant in Podlipki for Baikonur at the end of September 2025 and arrived at Baikonur by October 7 of the same year. The active preparations of the vehicle for launch started on November 10, with the testing of its radio system in the anechoic chamber of the spacecraft processing facility at Site 254.

The spacecraft then underwent pneumatic and vacuum tests in the vacuum chamber, which started on Nov. 15, 2025. On November 20, it was returned to its processing rig at Site 254.

On Nov. 27, 2025, the launch of the Soyuz MS-28 spacecraft resulted in the collapse of the mobile service platform below the launch pad at Site 31, forcing the postponement of the Progress MS-33 mission, then scheduled to lift off on Dec. 21, 2025, at 03:55 Moscow Time. Soon after the incident, the launch was expected as early as March 11, but by Dec. 19, 2025, it was set for March 22, 2026.

On Feb. 15, 2026, Roskosmos announced that its specialists at Baikonur had unpacked the mothballed Progress MS-33 in preparation for equipment checks and irreversible operations, including fueling, integration with the launch vehicle adapter and encapsulation under its payload fairing.

The testing of the spacecraft's solar panels was completed by Feb. 26, 2026, followed by irreversible operations in the first half of March. On March 12, Progress MS-33 was docked to the launch vehicle adapter used for the integration of the spacecraft with its Soyuz rocket. The next day, the cargo ship was rolled inside its payload fairing.

On March 15, 2026, the payload section encapsulating Progress MS-33 was transported from the spacecraft processing building at Site 254 to the vehicle assembly building at Site 31 for integration with its Soyuz-2.1a rocket, which was completed on March 16. The next morning, the launch vehicle was rolled out to the launch pad for a series of interface tests with the repaired launch pad at Site 31 before the start of the routine on-pad operations on March 19, leading to the liftoff on March 22.

Progress MS-33 launch profile

A Soyuz-2-1a rocket, carrying the Progress MS-32 cargo ship, is scheduled to lift off from Pad 6 at Site 31 in Baikonur on March 22, 2026, at 14:59:51 Moscow Time (7:59 a.m. EDT, 11:59 UTC, 16:59 local time).

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 will head 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 should separate 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 (3 minutes 3 seconds after liftoff), just above the dense atmosphere and around 200 kilometers downrange. In the meantime, the second stage will continue 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 should ignite 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 will part ways and the aft cylindrical section of the third stage will split into three segments and drop off, ensuring the fall of the second stage and the aft section into the same area on the ground.

The third stage will complete firing its engine and release the cargo ship into an initial parking orbit around 8 minutes 49 seconds after liftoff or at around 15:08 Moscow Time.

Rendezvous and docking

After its launch on March 22, 2026, Progress MS-33 will be on a two-day rendezvous track with the station.

The cargo ship was scheduled to dock in a fully automated mode to the zenith (space-facing) port of the Poisk (MIM2) module, a part of the Russian ISS Segment on March 24, 2026, at 16:35:23 Moscow Time (9:35 a.m. EDT).

The cargo ship is scheduled to stay at the station for around six months.

This page is maintained by Anatoly Zak; last update: March 21, 2026

Page editor: Alain Chabot; last edit: March 21, 2026

All rights reserved

Solntse-Teragerts telescope carried on Progress MS-33 for the installation on the exterior of the Russian ISS Segment.

Progress MS-33 shortly after its integration with the launch vehicle adapter inside the spacecaft processing building on March 13, 2026. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos

The payload section of the Progress MS-33 spacecraft had an insignia dedicated to the 65th anniversary of Gagarin's flight on April 12, 1961. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos

The upper composite of the Progress MS-33 cargo ship and third stage of the Soyuz launch vehicle is being prepared for integration with booster stages of the rocket in the vehicle assembly building at Site 31. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos

The Soyuz rocket with Progress MS-33 arrives at the launch pad at Site 31 on March 17, 2026. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos