A Russian cargo ship will launch early Thursday (May 30) toward the International Space Station.
The robotic Progress 88 cargo ship lifted off on a Soyuz rocket at 5:43 a.m. EDT (0943 GMT; 2:43 p.m. local time in Baikonur) Thursday from the Russian-run Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Progress 88 is packed with about 3 tons of food, propellant and other supplies for astronauts living on the International Space Station (ISS).
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With the launch scheduled, the cargo ship will now deliver this reward to the ISS on Saturday (June 1). It is scheduled to dock with the space-facing port of the orbiting observatory’s Poisk module at 7:47 a.m. EDT (1147 GMT) later that day, according to NASA officials. The meeting can also be watched live; Coverage will begin Saturday at 7:00 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT).
Progress 88 will remain on the ISS for about six months. Astronauts will then load the cargo ship with debris, which will head back toward Earth and eventually burn up in our planet’s atmosphere.
Three robotic spacecraft currently carry cargo to the ISS: Progress, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus vehicle, and SpaceX’s Cargo Dragon capsule. Cygnus and Progress are designed to be single-use, whereas Dragon is reusable; It returns safely to Earth for ocean splashdowns with the help of a parachute.
Two cargo ships are stationed at the ISS at the moment – Progress 87 and a Cygnus – and Progress 86 took off on Tuesday (May 28). The orbiting observatory currently hosts two crewed spacecraft: SpaceX’s Crew-8 astronaut for NASA and Crew Dragon flying the Russian Soyuz vehicle.
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