Another Russian cargo craft is on its option to the International Space Station.
A Soyuz rocket launched the uncrewed Progress 82 freighter toward the International Space Station (ISS) from the Russia-run Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan tonight (Oct. 25) at 8:20 p.m. EDT (0020 GMT and 5:20 a.m. native Baikonur time on Oct. 26).
Progress 82 is carrying almost 3 tons of meals, gas and different provides for the crewmembers of the orbiting lab’s present Expedition 68 mission.
Related: How Russia’s Progress spaceships work (infographic)
The freighter will chase the ISS for 2 days, lastly catching it and docking Thursday (Oct. 27) at 10:49 p.m. EDT (0249 GMT on Oct. 28), if all goes in line with plan. You can watch the arrival right here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV . Coverage is scheduled to start at 10:15 p.m. EDT (0215 GMT on Oct. 28).
Progress is considered one of three robotic spacecraft that presently fly cargo missions to the ISS. The different two are non-public American autos — SpaceX’s Dragon capsule and Northop Grumman’s Cygnus automobile.
Dragon is reusable, however Progress and Cygnus are expendable craft that fritter away in Earth’s ambiance when their time in orbit is up. The Progress 80 automobile lately gave up the ghost, in actual fact, departing the ISS on Sunday night (Oct. 23) and performing an intentional loss of life dive shortly thereafter.
Another Progress spacecraft stays on the ISS, nevertheless: Progress 81, which arrived in June.
Two crewed autos are docked with the orbiting lab in the intervening time as properly. One is a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, which arrived in September. The different is SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule Endurance, which is flying the corporate’s Crew-5 mission for NASA. Endurance launched atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Oct. 5 and reached the ISS a day later.
Editor’s word: This story was up to date at 8:40 p.m. EDT on Oct. 25 with information of a profitable liftoff.
Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a e book concerning the seek for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).
