The International Space
Station has received a new load of supplies from the latest Russian-built cargo
freighter, which successfully docked to the outpost Saturday night.
The Progress M-03M ship
attached itself to the Earth-facing port on the Pirs docking module at 9:40
p.m. EDT while flying in orbital darkness 225 miles above the South Atlantic
off the coast of Uruguay. It's the 35th
such spacecraft sent to the station over the past decade.
"Congratulations on
the successful docking," Mission Control-Moscow radioed the crew.
The space station is
occupied by the Expedition 21 crew of commander
Frank De Winne, Russian cosmonauts Roman Romanenko and Maxim Suraev,
Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk and NASA astronauts Jeff Williams an Nicole
Stott.
The crew is scheduled to
open the hatchway and enter into the Progress overnight.
The Russian-made craft is
delivering two-and-a-half tons of supplies to
the station. The "dry" cargo tucked aboard the Progress amounts
to 1,750 pounds in the form of spare parts, life support gear and equipment
hardware.
The refueling module
carries 1,918 pounds of propellant for transfer into the Russian segment of the
complex to feed the station's maneuvering thrusters. The vessel also has 926
pounds of water.
The vessel was launched
Wednesday night from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
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