April 22, 2012

Russian cargo ship docks at International Space Station

A Russian Soyuz-U booster carrying the cargo spacecraft Progress atop rises on a launch pad at the Russian leased Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome on April 18. The Russian cargo ship Progress M-15M successfully docked at the International Space Station.

The Russian cargo ship Progress M-15M successfully docked at the International Space Station on Sunday, the mission control centre said.

"The docking was by automatic pilot," mission control said on its website, adding that the operation ended at 1439 GMT.

Progress, carrying 2.35 tonnes of fuel, food and water, was launched by a Soyuz rocket on Friday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The ISS, which orbits 350 kilometres (about 220 miles) above the earth, is permanently occupied by international researchers.

Six men are currently aboard, Russians Oleg Kononenko, Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin, US astronauts Dan Burbank and Don Pettit, and Andre Kuipers of The Netherlands.

The Russian space industry suffered a spate of five failed launches in 2011.

Russian cargo ship docks at International Space Station

China sends a probe to get samples from the less-explored far side of the moon

Intercropping viable for optimizing vegetable production on Mars

Horizontal running could help lunar astronauts retain physical conditioning

Japan's moon lander wasn't built to survive a weekslong lunar night. It's still going after 3

NASA's Voyager 1 resumes sending engineering updates to Earth

Simulated microgravity affects sleep and physiological rhythms, study finds

'Tube map' around planets and moons made possible by knot theory

The BREAD Collaboration is searching for dark photons using a coaxial dish antenna

Research quantifies 'gap' in carbon removal for first time—shows countries need more awareness, ambition and action

Research shows bumblebee nests are overheating due to climate change, threatening future populations

Study finds human noise negatively impacts cricket survival and reproduction

New eco-friendly lubricant additives protect turbine equipment, waterways

Nanotubes, nanoparticles and antibodies detect tiny amounts of fentanyl

Bigger brains allow cliff-nesting seagull species to survive and thrive in urban environments

Oil palm plantations are driving massive downstream impact to watershed

Centipedes used in traditional Chinese medicine offer leads for kidney treatment

Physicists arrange atoms in close proximity, paving way for exploring exotic states of matter

For microscopic organisms, ocean currents act as 'expressway' to deeper depths, study finds