Russian module - Prichal docks with ISS

• Russia's new docking module Prichal successfully docked with International Space Station (ISS) on friday last week.
• The new edition to ISS completed an automated docking with Nadir (Earth facing port) of Russia's Nauka lab module.
• The module blasted off into orbit from Russia-leaked baikonur spaceport in kazakhstan.

Prichal

• Means “Pier” in Russian.
• The new spherical module comprises six docking ports.
• It is the second permanent addition to the Russian segment of ISS this year after Nauka Module.
• The 5 tonne docking module can accommodate upto 5 spacecrafts and will deliver 700 kilos of cargo to ISS including food rations , repair tools and hygiene supplies.
• The docking of Nauka in July had complications after its thrusters unexpectedly fired causing the stations to briefly till out of the orbit.
• The ship is expected to undock from ISS on December 22.
• The module was approved in 2011 and was finally launched on November 24, 2021 onboard “Progress M-UM”.

ISS

• It is a habitable artificial satellite in low Earth orbit.
• First component of ISS was launched into orbit in 1998.
• ISS is now the largest human-made body in low Earth orbit.
• It serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and other fields.
• Five different space agencies representing 15 countries built the $100-billion International Space Station and continue to operate it today.
• NASA, Russia’s Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities (Roscosmos), the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency are the primary space agency partners on the project.