Russia sends Progress cargo spacecraft into space
MOSCOW. Oct 31 (Interfax-AVN) - A Soyuz-U launch vehicle carrying a Progress M-17M cargo spacecraft has been launched from the Baikonur Space Center, the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos told Interfax-AVN.
"The rocket carrying the freighter has been launched from Launch Pad 1, called the Gagarin Start, at the Baikonur Space Center. The launch went off normally," a Roscosmos spokesperson told Interfax on Wednesday.
Later reports said the spacecraft successfully separated from the third stage and reached an interim orbit before docking with the International Space Station.
Russian mission control told Interfax-AVN that the Progress would dock with the ISS following an accelerated procedure compared to that used earlier.
"Using this procedure, the spacecraft will approach the ISS six hours after launch rather than 48, as was the case with the usual docking procedure," a mission control spokesperson said.
This will be the second time the accelerated docking procedure is to be used, following the first successful experience involving a Progress M-16M in August 2012.
The Progress M-17M to the Zvezda service module is scheduled preliminarily for 5:40 p.m. Moscow time October 31.
The spacecraft should deliver fuel components, oxygen, research equipment, medical supplies, food, water, and parcels for the ISS crew weighting in total about 2,500 kilos.
The spacecraft launched on Wednesday is the fourth one to have been sent to the ISS in 2012.
The three-stage liquid-fuel Soyuz-U launch vehicle has been developed and is being manufactured by the TsSKB Progress space center. It has been operated since 1973, and the launch weight is 313 tonnes.
There crew onboard the ISS currently includes six people: Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky, Yevgeni Tarelkin, and Yury Malenchenko, NASA Astronauts Kevin Ford and Sunita Williams, and JAXA Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.