Five days ahead of Discovery's launch from Kennedy Space Center with a crew of six astronauts, an unmanned Russian cargo ship has blasted off from Kazakhstan on a mission to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. The Progress 40 spacecraft launched into a night sky at the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 11:11 a.m. Eastern time, or 9:11 p.m. local time, and successfully reached orbit about nine minutes later.
The Progress is hauling 1,918 pounds of propellant, 1,100 pounds of oxygen, 498 pounds of water and 2,804 pounds of food, spare parts and supplies up to the outpost orbiting more than 200 miles above Earth with a crew of . It's scheduled to dock to the station's Pirs docking compartment at 12:39 p.m. Saturday, shortly after NASA managers meet at Kennedy Space Center to give a "go" for Discovery to proceed with its countdown to a 4:40 p.m. Monday launch. That launch would be followed by a Wednesday docking at the station.
You can watch live coverage of the Progress docking here starting at noon Saturday by clicking on the NASA TV image at right. Some of the station's three Russian crew members reported seeing the Progress launch from the station's seven-windowed Cupola. Shannon Walker, one of three Americans manning the outpost, said she missed it "because we didn't know to go look at that time," but she looked forward to seeing a video replay.
2 comments:
The Progress is hauling 1,918 pounds of propellant, 1,100 pounds of oxygen, 498 pounds of water and 2,804 pounds of food, spare parts and supplies...and a bunch of Brevard jobs.
what happens after the unmanned space craft drops off its load? what happens next? does it go back to earth or go out to space?
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