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Progress MS-32 to re-supply ISS

The third Russian mission of the year to re-supply the International Space Station, ISS, lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, on Sept. 11, 2025. The Progress MS-32 cargo ship is on a two-day trip to the orbital outpost delivering propellant and cargo to the Expedition 73 crew.

Progress MS-32 mission at a glance:

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According to Roskosmos, Progress MS-32 was scheduled to deliver more than 2,516 kilograms of cargo to the station, including 1,176 kilograms of supplies in its pressurized cargo compartment, among them 206 kilograms of materials for scientific experiments (INSIDER CONTENT), 364 kilograms of food in containers, fresh food items, such as fruits and vegetables, the disposal packaging, 86 kilograms of hygiene supplies and 19 kilograms of medical equipment, including special loads-inducing suits for the crew to combat the effects of weightlessness. At the same time, the ship's tanker module was also filled with 870 kilograms of propellant for refueling (INSIDER CONTENT) the station's propulsion system (INSIDER CONTENT), 420 kilograms of drinking water and 50 kilograms of compressed nitrogen for replenishing the atmosphere of the ISS.

Scientific gear and supplies with the latest delivery were supporting several ongoing experiments including Vzaimodeistvie-2, Neiroimmunitet, Biomag-M, Aseptik, Virtual, Struktura, Vampir and Ekran-M.

Along with routine cargo, Progress MS-32 carried the Orlan-MKS No. 7 spacesuit for performing spacewalks on the Russian ISS Segment.

Progress MS-32 launch campaign

During 2024, the launch of Progress MS-32 was expected on Aug. 13, 2025, but before the end of 2024, the start of the mission shifted to Sept. 11, 2025.

The spacecraft was delivered to Baikonur on June 24, 2025, and put in storage mode at Site 254 to wait for an active launch campaign. The first pre-flight inspections of the vehicle started in early July 2025 with tests of radio system and onboard avionics, which continued during the rest of the month. The testing for air leaks in the vacuum chamber at Hall 103 was completed in the first week of August 2025. In mid-August, specialists tested the ship's solar panels, exposing them to an array of electric lights.

On Aug. 28, 2025, a meeting of technical management cleared the cargo ship for irreversible operations including loading of propellant and pressurized gases into the tanks of the ship's Integrated Propulsion System, KDU, and the Refueling System, SD (INSIDER CONTENT). Before its transfer to the fueling station, the spacecraft underwent weighting and balancing in the Spacecraft Processing Building at Site 254, where it returned on August 30, for final preparations.

By September 3, the spacecraft was integrated with its launch vehicle adapter and then it was rolled inside its payload fairing, after which, the resulting composite was transported to the vehicle assembly building for integration with the Soyuz-2-1a rocket.

The assembly of the launch vehicle for the mission was completed by Sept. 7, 2025, and on September 8, the rocket with the cargo ship was rolled out to the launch pad.

Progress MS-32 launch profile

A Soyuz-2-1a rocket, carrying the Progress MS-32 cargo ship, lifted off as scheduled from Pad 6 at Site 31 in Baikonur on Sept. 11, 2025, at 18:54:06 Moscow Time.

Following a vertical liftoff under the combined thrust of the four RD-107 engines on the first stage and the single RD-108 of the second (core) stage, the launch vehicle headed eastward from Baikonur matching its ground track to an orbit inclined 51.67 degrees to the plane of the Equator.

The four first-stage boosters separated 1 minute 58 seconds after liftoff (L+117.85 seconds), at an altitude of around 43 kilometers, followed by the split and drop of the two halves of the payload fairing (L+183.20 seconds) slightly more than a minute later at an altitude of around 91 kilometers (3 minutes 3 seconds after liftoff), just above the dense atmosphere and around 200 kilometers downrange. In the meantime, the second stage continued firing until 4 minutes and 47 seconds into the flight, bringing the vehicle to around 143 kilometers above the planet and a speed of around four kilometers per second, some 500 kilometers downrange from the launch site.

The third stage ignited moments before the separation of the second stage, firing its RD-0110 engine through a lattice structure connecting the two boosters and ensuring a continuous thrust during the separation process. A fraction of a second later, the boosters of the second and third stage parted ways at L+287.42 seconds and the aft cylindrical section of the third stage split into three segments and dropped off at L+296.82 seconds, ensuring the fall of the second stage and the aft section into the same area on the ground.

The third stage completed firing its engine at L+525.67 seconds into the flight and released the cargo ship into an initial parking orbit around 8 minutes 49 seconds after liftoff or at 19:02:55 Moscow Time.

According to mission control in Korolev, the deployable elements aboard Progress MS-32 were successfully opened in the following sequence:

• SB-2 solar panel — 19:03:15 Moscow Time;
• SB-1 solar panel — 19:03:15 Moscow Time;
• KL-153M-1 TV camera — 19:03:17 Moscow Time;
• ABM-282 antenna — 19:03:10 Moscow Time;
• 2ASF1-M-VKA No. 1 antenna — 19:03:05 Moscow Time;
• 2ASF1-M-VKA No. 2 antenna — 19:03:09 Moscow Time.

Within three minutes after reaching orbit, between 19:05 and 19:09 Moscow Time, mission control expected tests of the Kurs rendezvous system aboard the Progress. The extension of the docking probe of the docking mechanism into an operational position was scheduled between 20:29 and 20:41 Moscow Time on Sept. 11, 2025.

Rendezvous and docking

At the time of the Progress MS-32 reaching orbit, the ISS was circling the Earth over the Eastern Pacific in a 413.824 by 432.384-kilometer orbit, according to the mission control in Korolev.

After more than two days in the autonomous flight (49 hours 33 minutes), Progress MS-32 was scheduled to dock to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module, SM, a part of the Russian ISS Segment, on Sept. 13, 2025, at 20:27 Moscow Time (1:27 p.m. EDT), during the 34th orbit of its mission.

Russian cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov and Aleksei Zubritsky were at the TORU remote-control post inside the Zvezda Service Module, ready to take over the control of the final approach between the cargo ship and the station in case of problems with the Kurs automated rendezvous system.

The ship completed the flyaround of the ISS at around 20:10 Moscow Time and after a few seconds in the station-keeping mode was cleared for the final approach from a distance of around 100 meters, as the two vehicle were flying over the border between Southern Russia and Kazakhstan.

The physical contact between Progress MS-32 and the ISS was recorded at 12:23 Houston Time (20:23 Moscow Time), according to NASA. Several minutes later, hooks on the periphery of the docking mechanisms were closed, completing the mechanical docking process.

The hatch opening between the vehicles was not scheduled until the morning of September 14.

(To be continued)

This page is maintained by Anatoly Zak; last update: September 13, 2025

Page editor: Alain Chabot; last edit: September 11, 2025

All rights reserved

Progress MS-32 during preparations inside the spacecraft processing building at Site 254. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos

Progress MS-32 is rolled inside its payload fairing, which was emblazoned with an insignia marking the 90th birthday of Gherman Titov, who piloted the Vostok-2 mission in August 1961. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos

Progress MS-32 is loaded into a rail transporter for a trip to a fueling station. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos

Integration of the payload section with the third stage of the Soyuz-2-1a launch vehicle in preparation for the Progress MS-32 launch. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos

An onboard camera shows separation of the payload fairing during the Progress MS-32 launch on Sept. 11, 2025. Click to enlarge. Credit: Roskosmos