MOSCOW — An unmanned Russian cargo ship has docked successfully at the International Space Station, where it was anxiously awaited by the US-Russian crew after the successive failures of two previous supply missions.
The Progress M-28M ship, which is carrying 2.5 metric tons of fuel, oxygen, water, food, and other supplies, was launched into orbit Friday from the Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan. Russian Mission Control said it docked successfully Sunday in the automated mode at the orbiting space station.
The previous Progress launch in April had ended in failure, and a week ago a US supply mission failed when SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket broke apart shortly after liftoff.
The mishaps were preceded by last October’s launch pad failure of Orbital Sciences’ Antares rocket, also carrying station cargo for NASA.
NASA said the station is well-stocked, with enough supplies for the crew to last at least until October. However, successful operation of the Russian spacecraft is considered vital for the future of the station program, which has exclusively relied on Russian craft for ferrying crews after the grounding of the US shuttle fleet.
Soyuz rockets are used to propel both Soyuz-manned spacecraft and Progress cargo ships to orbit. The launch of the station’s next crew of three has been pushed back from late May to late July as space officials have looked into the reason for the rocket failure in April.
Russian space officials eventually have traced the failure to a leak from fuel and oxidizer tanks in the booster’s third stage.