Progress M-23M Flight Preparation on Schedule

Today, at Assembly & Test Facility, Site 112, the TsSKB-Progress (Samara) expert teams are carrying out the pneumatic tests of units A (second stage) and B (first stage) of the Soyuz-U carrier rocket which will place Progress M-23M into orbit.

At the same time, at the cosmodrome fuelling station, Site 31, the spacecraft propulsion system is being fuelled with propellant components and compressed gases by the working teams of Yuzhny Space Center, FGUP TsENKI and S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation „Energia“.

Upon fuelling, the spacecraft will be brought back to the Assembly & Test Facility, Site 254 to be further prepared for launch.

The Soyuz-U/Progress M-23M is scheduled for launch at 19:25 Moscow Time on 9 April 2014.

The spacecraft will deliver more than 2.5 tons of various supplies to the ISS including fuel to maintain the ISS orbit, spare parts for the station, food, water, and oxygen for astronauts, and experiments.

ROSCOSMOS Press Service