Progress MS-32 to re-supply ISS

Progress MS-32 to re-supply ISS

The third Russian mission to re-supply the International Space Station, ISS, is scheduled to lift off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, on Sept. 11, 2025. The Progress MS-31 cargo ship should make a two-day trip to the orbital outpost delivering propellant and cargo to the Expedition 73 crew.

Previous cargo mission: Progress MS-31

Progress MS-32 mission at a glance:

According to Roskosmos, Progress MS-32 was scheduled to deliver more than 2,500 kilograms of cargo to the station, including 1,179 kilograms of supplies in its pressurized cargo compartment, among them 206 kilograms of materials for experiments, 364 kilograms of food in containers, fresh food items, such as fruits and vegetables, the disposal packaging, 86 kilograms of hygiene supplies and 19 kilograms of medical equipment, including special loads-inducing suits for the crew to combat the effects of weightlessness. At the same time, the ship’s tanker module was also filled with 870 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.

Scientific gear and supplies with the latest delivery were supporting several ongoing experiments including Vzaimodeistvie-2, Neiroimmunitet, Biomag-M, Aseptik, Virtual, Struktura, Vampir and Ekran-M.

Along with a routine cargo, Progress MS-32 carried the Orlan-MKS No. 7 spacesuit for performing spacewalks on the Russian ISS Segment.

Progress MS-32 launch campaign

During 2024, the launch of Progress MS-32 was expected on Aug. 13, 2025, but before the end of 2024, the start of the mission shifted to Sept. 11, 2025.

The spacecraft was delivered to Baikonur on June 24, 2025, and put in storage mode at Site 254 to wait for an active launch campaign. The first pre-flight inspections of the vehicle started in early July 2025 with tests of radio system and onboard avionics, which continued during the rest of the month. The testing for air leaks in the vacuum chamber at Hall 103 was completed in the first week of August 2025. In mid-August, specialists tested the ship’s solar panels, exposing them to an array of electric lights.

On Aug. 28, 2025, a meeting of technical management cleared the cargo ship for irreversible operations including loading of propellant and pressurized gases into the tanks of the ship’s Integrated Propulsion System, KDU, and the Refueling System, SD (INSIDER CONTENT). Before its transfer to a fueling station, the spacecraft underwent weighting and balancing in the Spacecraft Processing Building at Site 254, where it returned on August 30, for final preparations.

By September 3, the spacecraft was integrated with its launch vehicle adapter and then it was rolled inside its payload fairing, after which, the resulting composite was transported to the vehicle assembly building for integration with the Soyuz-2-1a rocket.

The assembly of the launch vehicle for the mission was completed by Sept. 7, 2025, and on September 8, the rocket with the cargo ship was rolled out to the launch pad.

Progress MS-32 launch profile

A Soyuz-2-1a rocket, carrying the Progress MS-32 cargo ship, is scheduled to lift off from Pad 6 at Site 31 in Baikonur on Sept. 11, 2025, at 18:54:06 Moscow Time.

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 will head 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 will separate 1 minute 58 seconds after liftoff, 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 an altitude of around 91 kilometers, just above the dense atmosphere and around 200 kilometers downrange. In the meantime, the second stage should continue 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 will ignite 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 will part ways and the aft cylindrical section of the third stage will split into three segments and drop off, ensuring the fall of the second stage and the aft section into the same area on the ground.

The third stage should complete firing its engine and release the cargo ship into an initial parking orbit around 8 minutes 49 seconds after liftoff.

Rendezvous and docking

After two days in the autonomous flight, Progress MS-32 is scheduled to dock to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module, SM, a part of the Russian ISS Segment, on Sept. 13, 2025, at 20:27 Moscow Time.

(To be continued)