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A Russian robotic cargo vehicle docked at the International Space Station on Saturday morning (June 1) to deliver tons of new supplies, just hours before the planned launch of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft scheduled to carry two astronauts to the station for the first time.
The Roscosmos Progress 88 cargo ship docked with the orbiting laboratory’s Poisk module on Saturday at 7:43 a.m. EDT (1143 GMT) in a smooth automated docking as the two spacecraft sailed high above southern Russia. The orbital rendezvous came two days after the cargo ship was launched toward the International Space Station (ISS) aboard a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The Expedition 71 space station’s seven-person crew watched Progress 88’s approach closely, and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub were prepared to assume manual control of the Progress 88 robotic spacecraft in case the Corse autopilot system malfunctioned, but the entire docking process went by the book.
“Great communication between the two, with the CORS automated docking system leading the way,” NASA spokesman Joseph Zakrizowski said during live commentary.
The Progress 88 vehicle carries about 2.7 tons of fuel, food and other supplies to the International Space Station. The cargo vehicle will remain attached to the orbiting laboratory for about six months, after which it will be filled with trash and headed toward fiery destruction in Earth’s atmosphere, as Progress 86 did earlier this week.
Progress 88 will join four other spacecraft in the orbiting laboratory. Also attached to the ISS are the Progress 87 spacecraft, the Cygnus cargo ship (built by the American company Northrop Grumman), and two crew vehicles: the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
The visitor list will continue to fill up over the coming days, if all goes according to plan. Boeing’s new Starliner capsule is scheduled to launch toward the International Space Station on Saturday in a crew flight test (CFT), its first astronaut mission ever, from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station later today at 12:25 p.m. EDT. (1625 GMT). You can watch the Starliner launch live on Space.com.
CFT will send NASA’s Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams to the station for a stay of about a week. If the mission goes well, the Starliner will be certified for operational crewed flights, as the Crew Dragon was four years ago.
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