Progress MS-36 (97P)

Progress MS-36 is the ninety-seventh Progress flight in a series that began before most of the current ISS crew was born. It launches from pad 31/6 at Baikonur on a Soyuz 2.1a in late November, follows the standard two-orbit fast-rendezvous profile to the Station, and docks automatically to the Poisk module. The cargo manifest is the usual mix: about 1,400 kg of dry stowage, 420 kg of water, and the propellant that keeps the Station above the atmosphere. Quiet, methodical, on schedule.

The Progress programme in context

By the time MS-36 flies, the Progress freighter will have been delivering cargo to orbiting stations for nearly fifty years. The first Progress flew to Salyut 6 in January 1978, and the basic concept — an expendable, unmanned variant of the Soyuz capsule, packed with supplies and fuel — has proven so reliable that Roscosmos has never seen a reason to replace it.

The vehicle has evolved through several variants (Progress M, Progress M-M, Progress MS), gaining digital avionics, improved solar panels, and the more precise Kurs-NA docking system. But the underlying architecture remains the same: three modules (cargo, fuel, service), a Soyuz rocket, and a pad at Baikonur.

Testing the deorbit hardware

Progress flights have begun to take on a second role beyond resupply — they test the hardware that will one day bring the Station down. From this flight onward, the propellant tanks include a slightly modified isolation valve, part of the gradual qualification of the dedicated deorbit vehicle that NASA and Roscosmos expect to fly around 2030.

The idea is to validate individual components on routine missions, one at a time, so that when the deorbit vehicle needs to work — a single-use burn that must not fail — every piece has already flown in the real environment. It is the kind of cautious, incremental approach that characterises the Russian side of the programme.

How it ends

Like every Progress before it, MS-36 will eventually be filled with waste, sealed, undocked, and commanded to deorbit. It will re-enter the atmosphere over the South Pacific and burn up — the ninety-seventh small bonfire in a series that nobody on the ground ever sees, and that the crew barely notices.