The installation of new door at International Space Station will result in the launch of commercial crew capsules sooner than expected. (Photo : Getty Images/NASA)
On April 2, the International Space station successfully received the Russian unmanned cargo ship Progress, which gave the space station's crew with needed supplies like food and fuel. Russia's mission control confirmed that there were no problems along the ship's journey.
Progress-63 docked at the space station precisely at the scheduled time, said an official at the Russian mission control to TASS. The unmanned cargo ship carried three tons of food, fuel, and other types of supplies to the cosmonauts from Russia who are Oleg Skripochka, Yuri Malenchenko, and Alexy Ovchinin. Also aboard on the space station are the NASA astronauts Tim Kopra and Jeff Williams, and British astronaut Tim Peake.
Cosmonaut Malenchenko was on standby to take over the controls by remote control if ever the cargo ship ran into issues, according to CBS News. The cargo ship lined up with the aft port of the space station and safely docked with the hooks and latches to lock it in place.
This was the second flight of an MS-series Progress from Russia's Baionur space base in Kazakhstan and now it has new upgraded communications and navigation tools. In June, Russia is expected to press on with their plans to launch the first MS-series Soyuz crew ferry craft, due to their successful launch and docking at the space station. Manned flights to the space station are usually handled by Russia, but sometimes the United States carry out resupply missions.
It can be noted that there were two previous cargo ships docked at the space station. First was Cygnus that took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and docked at the station on March 26, while the other is the Progress M-29M cargo ship, which has been detached on March 30 and will slowly go down to Earth before it hits the Pacific Ocean on April 8. Both cargo ships provided necessary supplies for the space station such as food water, science and research gear, and extra clothes.
In other news, SpaceX is also planning to launch a Dragon cargo ship from Cape Canaveral on April 8 to deliver more equipment for the space station crew. The whole cargo will weigh 3.5 tons, which will include a compartment that is inflatable that is planned to be attached to the Tranquility module on the station.
Check out the Progress-63 docking video below:
