An unmanned Russian Progress capsule arrived at the international space station April 29 filled with more than 3 tons of supplies for the six-person crew aboard the orbiting laboratory.
The cargo ship linked up with the space station at 10:28 a.m. EDT 354 kilometers over western Mongolia. The orbital rendezvous came two days after the Progress 42 spacecraft’s launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, packed Progress 42 with 880 kilograms of propellant, 50 kilograms of oxygen and air, 420 kilograms of water and 1,349 kilograms of maintenance hardware, experiment equipment and resupply items for the space station’s crew. The spacecraft, also known by the Russian designation Progress M-10M, parked at the Earth-facing Pirs docking port on the space station. Progress vehicles are disposable and routinely burn up in Earth’s atmosphere once their missions are complete.
