Russia’s newly-designed system of approach and docking Kurs-MKP will replace the equipment of Ukrainian manufacture installed on the ISS in two years’ time, the head of radio-technical systems of mutual measurements for the search, approach and docking of spacecraft division at the Scientific Research Institute for Precision Instruments Sergey Medvedev said.
“Our task for 2017 is to manufacture the first set of equipment. In 2018 it may be installed on the ISS”, he said.
Medvedev said that the digital system Kurs-MKP was already in the production phase. It is to replace the analogous system Kurs-P, created by the Ukrainian manufacturer Elmis.
The new equipment will be compatible with the docking system Kurs-NA, already being used in the new series of space vehicles Soyuz-MS.
The Kurs system consists of two components – the active one on board the space vehicle, and the passive one on the orbital station.
Kursk-MK is to have an effective range of up to 200 kilometers, twice that of its predecessor, while the error of range and speed measurements will be reduced by a quarter. (Russian Aviation/Business World Magazine)