New Progress Supply Ship On Its Way To ISS

A new shipment of supplies is on its way to the International Space Station (ISS). The 19th Progress spacecraft to visit the ISS lifted off today from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, at 9:08 a.m. EDT. Less than 10 minutes later, the cargo ship reached orbit, and solar arrays and navigational antennas were deployed successfully for the two-day trip.

Expedition 11 Commander Sergei Krikalev and Flight Engineer and NASA Flight Engineer and Science Officer John Phillips were flying 220 miles over the Pacific Ocean when the Progress launched.

Carrying more than 5,000 pounds of food, water, fuel, clothing, spare parts and other supplies, the Progress is scheduled to automatically dock to the station's Zvezda Service Module on Saturday at 10:50 a.m. EDT. The craft is delivering a new water circulation device, known as a liquids unit, for the station's Elektron oxygen-generating system. The unit will be installed next week to try to bring Elektron back into service.

Nearing the end of their fifth month in space, Krikalev and Phillips completed packing the old Progress with unnecessary items. The unpiloted cargo craft undocked from the Zvezda module's aft port at 6:26 a.m. EDT, Wednesday. It was deorbited and burned up in the Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.

Also this week, Krikalev and Phillips replaced parts inside the treadmill exercise machine in Zvezda. New components were delivered aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in July for a routine upgrade of the system. After two days of maintenance, Phillips activated the treadmill. He reported it is operating normally and available for daily use.

Copyright 2005 by Space Daily, Distributed United Press International