CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- A Russian Progress freighter filled with nearly three tons of food, supplies and equipment destined for the International Space Station was launched from Kazakhstan today.
Riding atop a Soyuz booster, the robot supply ship lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome right on time at 5:24 a.m. EDT, said NASA spokesman John Ira Petty.
Everything went well as the three-stage rocket spent nine minutes speeding the Progress into Earth orbit. After spacecraft separation the cargo ship's radio and docking antennae -- as well as its electricity-generating solar arrays -- deployed as expected.
This is the fifth Progress to be launched to the space station and is known by NASA as Progress 5.
Progress 4, meanwhile, remains docked to the aft end of the frontier outpost, joined to the Russian Zvezda service module. It is scheduled to undock from the complex at 2:05 a.m. EDT (0605 GMT) Wednesday and be sent on a course to burn up in Earth's atmosphere a few hours later.
That will clear the way for Progress 5 to rendezvous and dock with the station at 5:59 a.m. EDT (0959 GMT) on Thursday.
The approach is to be automatically flown by the robot spacecraft, but if there are any problems then Expedition Three Soyuz commander Vladimir Dezhurov will be able to take manual control of the procedure and fly the Progress 5 in for a safe docking.
Today's launch comes one day after shuttle Discovery departed space station Alpha, carrying with it the Expedition Two crew, who have spent more than five months living and working in space.For the Expedition Three crew -- which includes Dezhurov, station commander Frank Culbertson and flight engineer Mikhail Turin -- the Progress 5 is the first of several Russian spacecraft expected to visit the outpost during their planned four-month stay.
A new docking port, a fresh Soyuz rescue ship and at least one more Progress freighter is to be launched to Alpha on the current crew's watch.
The next shuttle mission to the complex will be launched in late November and is to be the Expedition Three crew's ride home.
advertisement
