Russia's new Nauka space module set to dock with ISS

[July 29, 2021]    MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia will enhance its capabilities at the International Space Station when the Nauka module, set to serve as a research lab, storage unit and airlock, docks later on Thursday, following last week's launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The module, a multipurpose laboratory named after the Russian word for 'science', is due to dock with the ISS at 1326 GMT, Russia's space agency Roscosmos has said.

Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin last month suggested Moscow would withdraw from the ISS in 2025 unless Washington lifted sanctions on the space sector that were hampering Russian satellite launches.

Launched in 1998, the ISS is a multinational project and comprises two segments, a Russian one and another one used by the United States and other space agencies.

"After its commissioning, the Russian segment will receive additional room for arranging workplaces, storing cargo and housing water and oxygen regeneration equipment," Roscosmos said in a statement on Wednesday.

It said the module performed its final corrective manoeuvre on Wednesday with no new orbit connections planned before docking.

(Reporting by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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