Russian cargo spacecraft arrives at ISS with nearly 3…

Russian cargo spacecraft arrives at ISS with nearly 3 tons of supplies

A spacecraft approaches with earth and the blackness of space in the background.

A robotic Russian Progress cargo spacecraft arrived at the International Space Station on Thursday night (Aug. 24), delivering nearly 3 tons of supplies to the outpost.

The Progress 85 vehicle, which launched atop a Soyuz rocket on Tuesday (Aug. 22), arrived at the orbiting lab tonight at 11:45 p.m. EDT (0345 GMT on Aug. 25).

The meetup occurred while both vehicles were flying about 260 miles (418 kilometers) above the South Pacific, NASA officials said.

A Russian Soyuz rocket launches the Progress 85 cargo spacecraft on Aug. 22, 2023. (Image credit: Roscosmos)

Progress 85 is packed with nearly 3 tons of food, propellant and other supplies for the astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

It joins another Progress vehicle at the orbiting lab — Progress 84, which arrived in late May. And Progress 83 just left, departing the ISS on Sunday (Aug. 20) after a six-month stay to burn up over the Pacific Ocean.

Such disposal is the norm for Progress vehicles, which are not reusable. (Northop Grumman's Cygnus freighter is also designed for one-time use. SpaceX's Cargo Dragon is the only currently operational ISS resupply vehicle that's reusable.)

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Tonight's Progress arrival will be the lead-in to an even bigger spaceflight event: The launch of SpaceX's Crew-7 mission, which will send four astronauts to the ISS.

Crew-7 had been scheduled to lift off on Friday (Aug. 25) at 3:50 a.m. EDT (0750 GMT) from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. But NASA and SpaceX scrubbed that try and are now targeting a liftoff on Saturday (Aug. 26) at 3:27 a.m. EDT (0727 GMT).

The Progress arrival and Crew-7 liftoff are part of a very busy week in spaceflight. For example, Russia's Luna-25 moon probe crashed on Saturday (Aug. 19) while performing a maneuver designed to set up a Monday (Aug. 21) lunar landing attempt.

India's Chandrayaan-3 mission aced its lunar touchdown yesterday (Aug. 23), notching a huge milestone for the nation. And, later that day, Rocket Lab launched a satellite to orbit using a rocket with a preflown engine — a first for the company, which is working toward booster reusability.

And there's yet more action coming this weekend: On Saturday (Aug. 26), Japan plans to launch its XRISM X-ray space telescope, with a small moon lander called SLIM ("Smart Lander for Investigating Moon") as a secondary payload.

SLIM's descent toward the lunar surface a few months from now will be the first landing attempt for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, but not for the nation overall. This past April, the Tokyo-based company ispace failed in its attempt to put a lander down on the lunar surface.

Editor's note: This story was updated at 11:55 p.m. ET on Aug. 24 with news of successful docking.

Update for 11:20 p.m. ET on Aug. 24: SpaceX and NASA have scrubbed the planned Aug. 25 launch of the Crew-7 astronaut mission. The next available launch opportunity is Aug. 26 at 3:27 a.m. EDT (0727 GMT). Read our scrub story here.

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