Russia launches cargo ship to the International Space Station

The Russian cargo ship Progress 80 set off on Monday (February 14), with about 3 tons of supplies and equipment on board, towards the orbital laboratory.

Russian Soyuz missile Progress 80 launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:25 PM EDT (0425 GMT or 9:25 AM local time on Tuesday, February 15).

The cargo ship will orbit the Earth more than 30 times before it reaches International Space Station, a major event scheduled to happen early Thursday (February 17). NASA TV will broadcast live coverage of the cargo ship’s arrival starting at 1:30 a.m. EDT (0630 GMT) on Thursday, and the advance should relate to the Russian Poisk docking unit at 2:06 a.m. EDT (0806 GMT) .

A Russian Soyuz rocket launched the Progress 80 cargo spacecraft toward the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on February 14, 2022. (Image credit: NASA/Roscosmos)

NASA reported That Progress 80 will carry about three tons of food, fuel and supplies to the International Space Station and that the cargo ship’s departure from the orbiting laboratory will be set by the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, at a later time.

Roscosmos announced a few days ago that it plans to do so Default delivery progress To one orbit, a two-hour trip to the orbiting laboratory. If early testing is planned, this ultrafast trajectory is expected to be implemented in 2023.

Beginning in 2018, many of the Progress vehicles have been able to reach the station in just two orbits, or three hours. But the timing of launches and the arrival of space stations is subject to several factors, such as the activities of other spacecraft that have docked on the space station.

Progress is the main spacecraft with which Russia provides supplies to its crews on the International Space Station, following the work of previous Progress variants that supplied previous stations such as Salyut 6 and Mir. Progress was first developed in the 1970s under the now defunct Soviet Union.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 11:47PM ET on February 14th with news of the successful launch of Progress 80.

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