Pirs (ISS module)

View of SO1 "Pirs" Docking compartment

The Pirs docking compartment is a Russian module of the International Space Station (ISS). Pirs (Russian: Пирс, meaning "pier") -- also called "Stikovochny Otsek 1" or "SO-1" (Russian: Стыковочный отсек, "docking module", or DC-1 (docking compartment) -- is one of the two Russian docking compartments originally planned for the ISS. Pirs was launched in August 2001. It provides the ISS with additional docking ports, and allows egress and ingress for spacewalks by cosmonauts using Russian Orlan space suits. When the Russian segment of the ISS was redesigned in 2001, the new design did not include the SO-2, and its construction was canceled.^[1] The SO-2 module now forms the basis for the Poisk module.

Construction and design

The Russian docking compartment was manufactured by RKK Energia. The Docking Compartment is similar to the Mir Docking Module used on the Mir space station. It provides docking ports for the Soyuz-TMA and Progress-M spacecraft. It also has two airlocks to accommodate spacewalks by cosmonauts wearing Russian Orlan-M spacesuits.

Launch in 2001

Pirs arrives at the ISS in 2001

The 3,580-kilogram Pirs Docking Compartment is attached to the nadir (bottom, Earth-facing) port of the Zvezda service module. It docked to the International Space Station on September 16, 2001, and was configured during three spacewalks by the Expedition 3 crew. Two Strela cargo cranes were later added by the STS-96 and STS-101 missions, carried up on Integrated Cargo Carriers and installed during EVAs.

Pirs was launched on September 14, 2001, as ISS Assembly Mission 4R, on a Russian Soyuz-U rocket, using a modified Progress spacecraft, Progress M-SO1, as an upper stage. The Docking Compartment has two primary functions. It serves as a docking port for the docking of transport and cargo vehicles to the space station, and as an airlock for the performance of spacewalks by two station crewmembers using Russian Orlan spacesuits.

In addition, the Docking Compartment can transport fuel from the fuel tanks of a docked Progress resupply vehicle to either the Zvezda Service Module Integrated Propulsion System or the Zarya Functional Cargo Block. It can also transfer propellant from Zvezda and Zarya to the propulsion system of docked vehicles—Soyuz and Progress. The docking compartment's planned lifetime as part of the station was five years.

Future

Pirs is scheduled to be detached from the nadir (bottom) port of the Zvezda module to make room for the Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module which is scheduled for launch in December 2011.^[2] It would then be destroyed during atmospheric re-entry and become the first ISS module to be decommissioned.

Airlock specifications

• Length: 4.91 metres (16.1 ft)
• Diameter: 2.55 metres (8 ft 4 in)
• Weight: 3,580 kilograms (7,900 lb)
• Volume: 13 cubic metres (460 cu ft)

Gallery

• 

  Expedition 9 inside Pirs

• 

  Pirs with a docked Progress spacecraft.

• 

  The location of Pirs on the Russian Orbital Segment.

References

1. ^ Anatoly Zak. "Docking Compartment of the Russian segment of the ISS". http://www.russianspaceweb.com/iss_dc.html. 
2. ^ NASA (2008). "Consolidated Launch Manifest". NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/iss_manifest.html. Retrieved July 8, 2008. 

External links

• "Pirs Docking Compartment". NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/pirs.html.