Russian Soyuz rocket launches robotic Progress cargo ship with 2.8 tons of supplies toward the ISS

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The Progress spacecraft will arrive at the space station on Sept. 13.

A Russian Progress freighter launched toward the International Space Station today (Sept. 11) on a mission to deliver several tons of cargo for the station's astronaut crew.

A Soyuz rocket lifted off from the Russia-run Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today at 11:54 a.m. EDT (1554 GMT; 8:54 p.m. local time in Kazakhstan), sending the robotic Progress 93 freighter into orbit.

Following a nominal liftoff, Soyuz jettisoned its side boosters 1 minute 58 seconds into flight. The rocket's primary booster burned for just under 3 more minutes and then performed a successful separation from the launch vehicle's upper stage, which completed the spacecraft's orbital insertion.

a gray spacecraft is seen docked to the international space station

Russia's Progress 92 cargo craft is pictured docked to the International Space Station's Poisk module after delivering about three tons of food, fuel and supplies for the Expedition 73 crew on July 5, 2025. (Image credit: NASA)

Progress 93 is slated to dock with the station's Zvezda service module, delivering 2.8 tons of food, propellant and other supplies to the astronauts of the current Expedition 73 mission on the ISS, according to a NASA update. Docking is scheduled to occur on Saturday (Sept. 13) at 1:27 p.m. EDT (1727 GMT).

A broadcast of the rendezvous will be available live; NASA's coverage of that event will begin at 12:30 p.m. EDT (1630 GMT) on Saturday.

Progress 93 will stay docked with the ISS for about six months. It will then depart loaded with astronaut trash, which will burn up, along with the freighter, in Earth's atmosphere.

Today's launch will be followed in relatively short order by that of another freighter — Northrup Grumman's Cygnus vehicle and the NG-23 mission, which will lift off atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday (Sept. 14) at 6:11 p.m. EDT (2211 GMT). You can watch that when the time comes as well.

Like Progress, Cygnus is designed for one-time use. But the other currently operational ISS cargo craft, SpaceX's Dragon, is different: At the end of each mission, it splashes down in the ocean under parachutes for recovery and reuse.

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Mike Wall
Mike Wall
Senior Space Writer

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.

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