Space Station Crew Jettisons Disposable Cargo Ship

An unmanned Russian cargo ship cast off from the International Space Station (ISS) Wednesday on a mission to destroy itself as the orbital laboratory makes way for an incoming delivery.

Packed with trash and unneeded equipment, the Progress 24 supply ship undocked from the space station at about 10:07 a.m. EDT (1407 GMT) as both spacecraft orbited over eastern China, NASA officials said.

ISS Expedition 15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Clayton Anderson jettisoned the disposable space freighter to prepare for the Aug. 5 arrival of more than 2.5 tons of fresh cargo aboard a new, Russian-built Progress 26 spacecraft.

Progress 26 is slated to launch spaceward atop a Russian Soyuz rocket on Thursday at 1:34 p.m. EDT (1734 GMT) from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA and Russia's Federal Space Agency expect the autonomous cargo ship to rendezvous with the ISS on Sunday to deliver some 5,111 pounds (2,318 kilograms) of fresh water, oxygen and other vital supplies to the station?s three-astronaut crew. The Soyuz rocket rolled out to its launch pad on Tuesday, NASA said.

Meanwhile, Progress 24 is destined for a fiery destruction in the Earth?s atmosphere. The cargo ship first arrived at the ISS in January, where it docked at the Russian-built Pirs docking compartment. The spacecraft's Wednesday departure left behind its immediate successor, Progress 25, and the Russian-built Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft still berthed at the orbital laboratory.

Progress 24 is due to fire its rocket engines at 2:40 p.m. EDT (1840 GMT) and burn up at about 3:14 p.m. EDT (1914 GMT), NASA said.

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