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A Russian cargo spacecraft has arrived at the International Space Station (ISS), ending a brief orbital chase.
The Progress 75 robotic vehicle docked with the lab in orbit at 1:12 a.m. EDT (0512 GMT) today (April 25), less than 3.5 hours later launch on a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The appointment occurred when both ships were flying about 260 miles (418 km) above northwest China, NASA officials said.
Related: Russia Progress spacecraft – ISS supply ship
Progress 75 is packed with nearly 3 tons (2.7 metric tons) of food, propellants, and other supplies for astronauts aboard the orbiting lab, which currently number only three: Chris Cassidy of NASA and cosmonauts Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner.
But the ISS population will increase by two a month from now, if everything goes as planned. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule is slated to launch on May 27, starting Demo-2, a test mission that will send NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the orbiting laboratory.
Demo-2 will be the first manned orbital space flight to be launched from the United States since NASA’s space shuttle fleet retired in July 2011. If the test flight goes well, SpaceX will be cleared to begin flying missions. manned operations to and from the ISS for NASA, which Elon Musk’s company will make under a $ 2.6 billion deal signed with the space agency in 2014.
Progress will be on the ISS for Demo-2; The Russian cargo ship will not leave the laboratory in orbit until December, NASA officials said. That departure will spell the end of Progress 75, which will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere soon after.
Three other robotic spacecraft are currently flying cargo missions to the ISS. Two of them are disposable like the Progress: Japan’s H-II transfer vehicle and Cygnus, built by Virginia-based company Northrop Grumman. The only reusable one is the SpaceX Charging Dragon, which ends its missions with parachute-assisted ocean splashes. (Both Northrop Grumman and SpaceX have NASA ISS resupply contracts.)
Mike Wall is the author of “Out there“(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for extraterrestrial life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.
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