The VBK-Raduga capsule was a reentry capsule that was used for returning materials to Earth's surface from the space station Mir. They were brought to Mir in the Progress-M cargo craft's dry cargo compartment. For return, the capsule would be substituted for the Progress' docking probe before it left the space station, and then after the Progress-M performed its deorbit burn, the capsule was ejected at 120km altitude to reenter the atmosphere independently. It would then parachute to a landing area in Russia.

Each Raduga was about 1.5m long, 60cm in diameter, and had an unloaded mass of about 350kg. It could return about 150kg of cargo back to Earth. Use of the Raduga reduced the Progress-M's cargo capacity by about 100kg, to a maximum of about 2400kg.

The European Space Agency studied a very similar system called PARES (Payload Retrieval System), for use in combination with the Automated Transfer Vehicle.

See also

• HTV Small Re-entry Capsule

References