MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd December, 2020) The launch of Russia's Nauka (Science) multipurpose laboratory module to the International Space Station (ISS) is preliminarily scheduled for April 2021, with July being an alternative option, a source in the space and rocket industry told Sputnik.
Nauka has been awaiting departure to orbit since 2007. Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, told Russian President Vladimir Putin in August 2019 that preparations for the launch were underway, and last September, Roscosmos announced that the launch would be conducted in November 2020. However, in April, Rogozin said that the launch would be postponed to 2021.
"The work on preparing the module for the launch will be completed by April 2021. The launch is preliminarily planned for April, but given the ballistic conditions, July is also being considered as one more comfortable option," the source said.
Nauka module is designed for scientific work, storing cargoes, docking spaceships and research modules, as well as fuel transfer from Progress spacecraft to the Zvezda Service Module.
