A runaway supply ship that failed to dock at the International Space Station on Friday made good on a second attempt this afternoon.
The robotic Russian-built cargo tug approached and made communication links with the space station around noon and docked at the orbiting outpost around 12:17 p.m.
Launched Wednesday from the Russian space-launch base in Kazakhstan, the Progress spacecraft carrying 2.5 tons of food, water and supplies was about to begin the final stage of its rendezvous Friday when it lost its data connection to the station. The ship simply glided by the space station instead of docking.
NASA said the spacecraft was about three kilometers away from the station when it passed by. Engineers in Russia and the United States analyzed the situation Friday afternoon and decided Saturday to try again today.
If the supplies had been lost, NASA officials have said that there are enough supplies on board for the crew through October or maybe even November. Another Progress cargo shipment is due in September and a U.S. space shuttle is set to arrive in November.
Space news and analysis from Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral 
1 comment:
Very soon our short sighted government will beholden to Russia for any access to a space station we were mostly responsible for building, at the time it can do the most research..Does not make sense .Suicide for NASA .
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