Categories: International Space Station

Russian Cargo Craft Docks With International Space Station

BAIKONUR COSMODROME, Kazakhstan – A Russian Progress M-28M cargo craft has successfully docked with the International Space Station at 3:11 a.m. EDT on Sunday, July 5, 2015.

Traveling about 251 miles over the south Pacific, southeast of New Zealand, the unpiloted Progress 60 Russian cargo ship docked with the International Space Station’s Pirs Docking Compartment, delivering more than 3,100 pounds of much needed food and supplies to the Expedition 44 crew, plus 106 pounds of oxygen, 926 pounds of water and 1,940 pounds of propellant.

Three International Space Station resupply missions have failed within a year: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded over Florida last week; Russian Progress M-27M cargo craft went out of control and fell back to Earth in April; and an Antares rocket exploded last year in Virginia.

Following the string of failures, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said, “…the commercial cargo program was designed to accommodate loss of cargo vehicles. We will continue operation of the station in a safe and effective way as we continue to use it as our test bed for preparing for longer duration missions farther into the solar system…”

Progress 60 is scheduled to remain docked to Pirs for the next four months.

The next resupply mission to the International Space Station is a Japanese HTV cargo craft that is scheduled to launch in August.

Image Credit: NASA TV