Russian Module Docks With International Space Station

A long-delayed Russian laboratory module docked with the International Space Station (ISS) Thursday, eight days after it was launched from Russia’s space facility in Kazakhstan.

The unmanned, 20-ton, nearly 13-meter-long Nauka (Science) module — also known as the Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) — docked with the ISS following a long and, at times, uncertain journey. The European Space Agency (ESA) says shortly after July 21 its launch from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the module deployed its solar panels and antennae as scheduled. But soon after, Russia’s mission control center in Moscow said the craft did not receive proper automated data commands and failed to complete an initial burn to raise its orbit. The ESA says flight engineers spent the week running critical propulsion tests and carrying out orbital corrections on the module, which is designed to rendezvous and dock automatically with the ISS using its own engines.