Spaceflight Now | Breaking News | Cargo delivery craft docks with the space station

Spaceflight Now +

		Subscribe to Spaceflight Now Plus for access to our extensive video collections! How do I sign up? Video archive "Apollo 10: To Sort Out The Unknowns" The May 1969 mission of Apollo 10 served as a final dress rehearsal before the first lunar landing later that summer. Stafford, Young and Cernan went to the moon to uncover lingering spacecraft problems that needed to be solved. Play STS-66: Earth's health Data about the health of the Earth's atmosphere was gathered using shuttle-based instruments and a satellite that was launched and retrieved during Atlantis' STS-66 mission. Play STS-68: Radar mapper A spectacular sight during STS-68 was the eruption of the Kliuchevskoi volcano on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The crew narrates post-flight movie. Play The brightest supernova Scientists tell the story about a monstrous explosion, a hundred times more energetic than a typical supernova. Observations have been made by the Chandra spacecraft and ground telescopes. Play "The Time of Apollo" This stirring 1970s documentary narrated by Burgess Meredith pays tribute to the grand accomplishments of Apollo as men left Earth to explore the Moon and fulfill President Kennedy's challenge to the nation. Play Become a subscriber More video

Cargo delivery craft docks with the space station
BY SPACEFLIGHT NOW
Posted: May 15, 2007

The International Space Station overnight received its 25th resupply ship when a Russian-built freighter loaded with fuel, water and cargo safely docked to the orbiting complex.

The Progress M-60 vehicle linked up to the aft port of the Zvezda service module at 1:10 a.m. EDT as the two spacecraft flew 220 miles above the Pacific Ocean off the northeastern coast of Australia.

"Docking confirmed right on the money, right on time," NASA spokesman Rob Navias said from Mission Control-Houston.

The ship was launched at 11:25 p.m. EDT Friday for a three-day flight to the station. A Soyuz rocket placed the 24-foot long Progress into an initial orbit that was later adjusted by a series of planned engine firings to rendezvous with the station.

This morning's docking occurred smoothly under autopilot control by the spacecraft. Cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin was poised to use joysticks and a video screen to manually fly the final approach from inside the station. But that backup plan wasn't required.

It was the second Progress flight to the station this year and the 25th since 2000.

The craft is loaded with 5,125 pounds of supplies. The "dry" cargo amounts to 3,042 pounds in the form of spare parts, repair gear, life support and science experiment hardware.

The refueling module carries 1,058 pounds of propellant for transfer into the Russian segment of the station to feed the outpost's maneuvering thrusters.

To replenish the station's oxygen supply, the Progress is bringing 99 pounds of air.

Also aboard is fresh water, amounting to 926 pounds.

The station residents were planning to complete leak checks and open the hatchway leading into the Progress by 4 a.m. EDT this morning.

Yurchikhin, commander of the Expedition 15 long-duration crew, is joined on the station by flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Suni Williams. Yurchikhin and Kotov began their six-month mission in April, while Williams has been living aboard the complex since December. Shuttle Atlantis will launch Williams' replacement, Clay Anderson, next month and bring her home to complete a half-year in space.