MOSCOW, July 24 (Reuters) - An upgraded Russian unmanned
spacecraft successfully linked up with the International Space
Station on Sunday on its second attempt to test a new docking
system, Russia's space agency said.
The docking set aside doubts over the new Kurs-NA rendezvous
system that will deliver astronauts and future cargoes to the
orbital station after a botched first test when the equipment
malfunctioned due to low temperatures earlier this week.
The operating system functioned properly after it was
allowed to warm up, according to a statement from the U.S. space
agency NASA.
Kurs-NA is an upgrade of the Kurs docking gear used for
years on Russia's manned Soyuz and robotic Progress spacecrafts.
The system consolidates five antennas into one, has updated
electronics and is designed to improve safety and use less
power, according to NASA.
The Progress ship re-docked with the Pirs module at 0100
GMT, the Russian space agency Roscomos said in a statement, for
a brief final stay before the single-use craft, laden with space
station trash, is due to burn up on re-entry over the Pacific
Ocean on July 30.
Since the retirement of the U.S. space shuttles last year,
the United States has been dependent on Russia and is paying $60
million per person to fly astronauts to the ISS, a $100 billion
research complex orbiting 240 miles (385 km) above Earth.
Moscow is struggling to restore the prestige of its
once-pioneering space programme after a string of launch mishaps
last year, including the failure of a mission to return samples
from the Martian moon Phobos.
Six astronauts are currently aboard the orbital outpost:
American Sunita Williams, Japan's Akihiko Hoshide and Russian
Yury Malenchenko joined cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei
Revin and US astronaut Joseph Acaba earlier this month.
(Reporting By Alissa de Carbonnel, editing by Tim Pearce)