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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 was on a two-day rendezvous trip to the orbital outpost, docking on March 2.

Progress MS-30 mission at a glance:

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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

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.

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 (L+117.85 seconds), 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 L+183.08 seconds) 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 at L+287.42 seconds in flight and the aft cylindrical section of the third stage split into three segments and dropped off at L+296.78 seconds in flight, 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 at L+525.45 seconds in flight and three seconds later, released the cargo ship into an initial parking orbit at 00:33:16 Moscow Time on Feb. 28, 2025 (L+528.75 seconds or 8 minutes 49 seconds after liftoff).

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 heading toward Africa in the 415.049 by 433.573-kilometer orbit.

In the next 22 seconds after separation from the third stage, a pair of solar panels and four antennas had been successfully deployed aboard the cargo ship, according to mission control in Korolev. Three minutes later, the spacecraft was scheduled to go through a usual routine of testing its Kurs-NA rendezvous system. Between 01:59 Moscow Time and 02:11 Moscow Time on Feb. 28, 2025, Progress MS-30 was scheduled to extend a probe of its active docking mechanism.

Several hours after the launch, the US Space Force posted orbital elements for the upper stage of the Soyuz-2-1a rocket remaining in a decaying orbit and for the Progress MS-30 spacecraft, after it had maneuvered to a transfer orbit, typically with two engine burns:

Progress MS-30 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.

Progress MS-30 was scheduled to begin an autonomous rendezvous with the ISS during the cargo ship's 33rd slightly elliptical orbit, which was expected to have the following parameters: a perigee — 386.227 kilometers and an apogee — 433.244 kilometers. Around the same time, the ISS was flying in a 414.376 by 433.678-kilometer orbit.

With the apogees of two spacecraft almost matched and Progress reaching within around 400 kilometers from the station, the autonomous rendezvous process was initiated around midnight from March 1 to March 2, 2025, punctuated by six orbit-correction maneuvers using the main SKD engine and small DPO thrusters of the cargo ship in the following two hours:

The autonomous rendezvous process between Progress MS-30 and the ISS was planned according to the following timeline on March 2, 2025:

*March 1, 2025

Around 40 minutes before the planned docking, cosmonauts Aleksei Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner completed testing of the TORU remote control system inside the Zvezda Service Module and put it in a stand-by mode in case of problems with the automated rendezvous system aboard the cargo ship.

The actual contact between the two vehicles was recorded at 02:02:30 Moscow Time, according to mission control in Korolev. (INSIDER CONTENT)

The mission control also reported a successful completion of the docking process between Progress MS-30 and the ISS with the following milestones:

• Contact: 02:02:30 Moscow Time;
• Mechanical capture: 02:02:31 Moscow Time;
• Motion of the probe within the docking mechanism to 400.507 millimeters: 02:06:12 Moscow Time;
• Electric interface contacts:
  • Interface 1: 02:06:09 Moscow Time;
  • Interface 2: 02:06:09 Moscow Time;
  • Interface 3: 02:06:09 Moscow Time;
  • Interface 4: 02:06:09 Moscow Time;
• Closure of the docking interfaces: 02:06:12 Moscow Time;
• Tightening of the docking interfaces: 02:07:11 Moscow Time;
• Closure of the hooks on the docking interface: 02:07:44 Moscow Time.

The hatches between the cargo ship and the Zvezda module were expected to be opened around 1.5 hours after the completion of the docking process and the subsequent leak checks in the docking interface.

On March 3, 2025, Roskosmos reported that cosmonauts from Expedition 72 aboard the ISS had started unloading the cargo ship.

(To be continued)

This page is maintained by Anatoly Zak; last update: March 3, 2025

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

All rights reserved

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

Loading of the Orlan-MKS No. 6 spacesuit aboard the Progress MS-30 cargo ship in February 2025. 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

A Soyuz-2-1a rocket with the Progress MS-30 spacecraft lifts off on Feb. 28, 2025. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos

Cosmonauts Ivan Vagner (left) and Aleksei Ovchinin at the controls of the TORU remote control docking system aboard the Zvezda Service Module during rendezvous with the Progress MS-30 cargo ship on March 2, 2025. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos