Progress M-18
| Mission type | Mir resupply |
|---|---|
| COSPAR ID | 1993-034A |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft type | Progress-M 11F615A55 |
| Manufacturer | NPO Energia |
| Launch mass | 7,250 kilograms (15,980 lb) |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 22 May 1993, 06:41:47 UTC |
| Rocket | Soyuz-U2 |
| Launch site | Baikonur Site 1/5 |
| End of mission | |
| Disposal | Deorbited |
| Decay date | 4 July 1993 |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Low Earth |
| Perigee | 388 kilometres (241 mi) |
| Apogee | 390 kilometres (240 mi) |
| Inclination | 51.6 degrees |
| Docking with Mir | |
| Docking port | Core Forward |
| Docking date | 24 May 1993, 08:24:44 UTC |
| Undocking date | 3 July 1993, 15:58:16 UTC |
| Time docked | 40 days |
Progress M-18 was a Russian unmanned cargo spacecraft which was launched in 1993 to resupply the Mir space station. The thirty-sixth of sixty four Progress spacecraft to visit Mir, it used the Progress-M 11F615A55 configuration, and had the serial number 218. It carried supplies including food, water and oxygen for the EO-13 crew aboard Mir, as well as equipment for conducting scientific research, and fuel for adjusting the station's orbit and performing manoeuvres.
Progress M-18 was launched at 06:41:47 GMT on 22 May 1993, atop a Soyuz-U2 carrier rocket flying from Site 1/5 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. It was the last Progress spacecraft to be launched on a Soyuz-U2. Following two days of free flight, it docked with the Forward port of Mir's core module at 08:24:44 GMT on 24 May.
During the 40 days for which Progress M-18 was docked, Mir was in an orbit of around 388 by 390 kilometres (210 by 211 nmi), inclined at 51.6 degrees. Progress M-18 undocked from Mir at 15:58:16 GMT on 3 July; less than half an hour before Soyuz TM-17 docked with the port which it had vacated. It was deorbited around a day later, to a destructive reentry over the Pacific Ocean. Before undocking, a VBK-Raduga capsule launched aboard Progress M-17 had been installed on Progress M-18, and this separated once the deorbit burn was complete. The capsule landed successfully at 17:13 GMT.
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