This story was updated at 11:32 a.m. EST.
An unmanned
Russian cargo ship packed with trash cast off from the International Space
Station (ISS) late Friday to make room for fresh delivery due at the orbital
lab next week.
The
automated space
freighter Progress 26 departed its berth at the station’s
Russian-built Pirs docking port at about 10:59 p.m.
EST (0359 GMT), freeing up a parking spot for a new ship to dock early
Wednesday.
Tucked alongside
vital supplies on the incoming replacement supply ship will be birthday
presents for cosmonaut
Yuri Malenchenko, who turned 46 today as he and
his two Expedition 16 crewmates orbited the Earth, Russia’s Federal Space
Agency said.
Russian
flight controllers are slated to use the disposable Progress 26 supply ship for
a series of orbital experiments before sending it plummeting toward Earth to
burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Launched
on Aug. 2, Progress 26 is the latest in a long line of unmanned Russian
cargo ships to depart the ISS. Similar in appearance to Russia’s
crewed Soyuz spacecraft, Progress freighters routinely haul new equipment,
clothing, water, food, propellant and personal items to astronauts living
aboard the orbital laboratory.
A
replacement supply ship, Progress 27, is due to launch atop a Russian Soyuz
rocket at 2:12 a.m. EST (1912 GMT) from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
In addition to Malenchenko’s birthday gifts,
the cargo ship will ferry more than 2.5 tons of propellant, food, and other
vital supplies to the station’s Expedition
16 astronaut crew.
Progress 27
is scheduled to dock at the ISS on Wednesday at 3:25 a.m. EST (2025 GMT).
NASA
will provide live coverage of the Progress 27 cargo ship’s ISS docking
live on NASA TV. Click here for
SPACE.com’s ISS mission coverage and live NASA TV feed.
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