A Russian cargo ship blasted into space Thursday to ferry
fresh food, clothing and other vital supplies to astronauts aboard the
International Space Station (ISS).
The unmanned Progress 26 spacecraft launched atop a
Russian-built Soyuz rocket at about 1:34 p.m. EDT (1734 GMT) from Baikonur
Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan in Central Asia, according to Russian news reports. Tucked inside the space freighter's
hold are more than 2.5 tons of supplies, which Progress 26 is expected deliver
to the station's three-astronaut Expedition 15 crew during a planned Aug. 5
rendezvous.
Progress 26 is due to arrive at the space station's
Russian-built Pirs docking compartment Sunday at about 2:38 p.m. EDT (1838
GMT), NASA officials said.
Once docked, the station's Expedition 15 commander Fyodor
Yurchikhin and flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Clayton Anderson will prepare to
unload the some 5,111 pounds (2,318 kilograms) of supplies from the unmanned
cargo ship.
Progress 26 is laden with 1,600 pounds (725 kilograms) of
propellant, more than 100 pounds of oxygen and air, as well as over 496 pounds
(224 kilograms) of water. The cargo ship is also packed with about 2,954 pounds
(1,339 kilograms) of dry cargo, ranging from food and clothing to spare parts
and science equipment.
Bob Dempsey, NASA's lead ISS flight director for Expedition
15, said Progress 26 was also expected to haul new computers for the space
station's Russian-built Zvezda service module. The new machines will be used to
replace some of six vital computers controlling the station's Russian
navigation and command systems, he said, adding that the repair could occur
after NASA's Endeavour shuttle crew arrives at the orbital laboratory next
week.
The current Russian navigation and command system computers
aboard the ISS crashed
in June during NASA's STS-117 shuttle mission. The glitch shut down some
Russian life support and navigation systems, leaving the station dependent on its
U.S. counterparts and the visiting Atlantis orbiter for attitude control. Yurchikhin
and Kotov, working with engineers on Earth, developed a fix using jumper cables
to bypass faulty hardware within each of the six computers.
The Thursday launch of Progress 26 comes one day after the
ISS crew jettisoned
a previous cargo ship, Progress 24, from the Pirs docking port to clear a
berth for the incoming spacecraft. The Expedition 15 crew is also preparing to
work with NASA's seven-astronaut STS-118 crew aboard the shuttle Endeavour,
currently set to launch on Aug. 7, to continue ISS assembly.
Commanded by veteran shuttle flyer Scott Kelly, Endeavour
will haul even more cargo and spare parts to the ISS, as well as a new
starboard-side addition to the station's backbone-like main truss.
The up-to-14-day spaceflight will also mark the first flight
of educator
astronaut Barbara Morgan, who served as backup for NASA's first Teacher in
Space Christa McAuliffe. McAuliffe and six NASA astronauts were aboard the
Challenger orbiter when it
broke up just after launch in January 1986.
NASA will provide live video coverage of Progress 26's ISS
arrival beginning at 2:00 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT) on Aug. 5 on NASA TV. Click here for SPACE.com's NASA TV feed
and space station mission updates.
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