Progress M-9
Progress M-9 (Russian: Прогресс М-9) was a Soviet uncrewed cargo spacecraft which was launched in 1991 to resupply the Mir space station. The twenty-seventh of sixty four Progress spacecraft to visit Mir, it used the Progress-M 11F615A55 configuration, and had the serial number 210. It carried supplies including food, water and oxygen for the EO-9 crew aboard Mir, as well as equipment for conducting scientific research, and fuel for adjusting the station's orbit and performing manoeuvres. It was the third Progress spacecraft to carry a VBK-Raduga capsule, which was used to return equipment and experiment results to Earth.
| Mission type | Mir resupply |
|---|---|
| COSPAR ID | 1991-057A |
| SATCAT no. | 21662 |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft type | Progress-M 11F615A55 |
| Manufacturer | NPO Energia |
| Launch mass | 7,250 kilograms (15,980 lb) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 20 August 1991, 22:54:10 UTC |
| Rocket | Soyuz-U2 |
| Launch site | Baikonur Site 1/5 |
| End of mission | |
| Disposal | Deorbited |
| Decay date | 30 September 1991 |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Low Earth |
| Perigee altitude | 379 kilometres (235 mi) |
| Apogee altitude | 396 kilometres (246 mi) |
| Inclination | 51.6 degrees |
| Docking with Mir | |
| Docking port | Core Forward |
| Docking date | 23 August 1991, 00:54:17 UTC |
| Undocking date | 30 September 1991, 01:53:00 UTC |
| Time docked | 38 days |
Progress M-9 was launched at 22:54:10 GMT on 20 August 1991, atop a Soyuz-U2 carrier rocket flying from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Following two days of free flight, it docked with the forward port of Mir's core module at 00:54:17 GMT on 23 August.
During the thirty eight days for which Progress M-9 was docked, Mir was in an orbit of approximately 379 by 396 kilometres (205 by 214 nmi), inclined at 51.6 degrees. Progress M-9 undocked from Mir at 01:53:00 GMT on 30 September, and was deorbited few hours later at 07:45, to a destructive reentry over the Pacific Ocean. The Raduga capsule landed in the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic at 08:16:24 GMT.