Progress MS-23 cargo spacecraft docks with ISS

MOSCOW. May 24 (Interfax) - The Progress MS-23 cargo spacecraft, which blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome earlier on Wednesday, has docked with the International Space Station (ISS), the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos said in a live broadcast.

The spacecraft docked with the Poisk module of the ISS Russian segment at 7:19 p.m. Moscow time. The Progress MS-23 flew along a superfast two-orbit approach trajectory, Roscosmos said.

The spacecraft will stay in orbit for 189 days, it said.

A Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle carrying the Progress MS-23 cargo spacecraft blasted off smoothly from Launch Area 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 3:56 p.m. Moscow time on Wednesday.

Progress MS-23 brought 2,491 kilograms of cargo, including 499 kilograms of fuel for the ISS, 630 kilograms of drinking water, 40 kilograms of nitrogen, and 1,322 kilograms of equipment, tools, expendables and research kits, clothes, food and hygienic products for Expedition 69.

It also delivered the URM-D universal workstation which is to be installed outside the Zvezda service module of the ISS Russian segment during a spacewalk.

Currently, there are 11 people aboard the ISS. They are Expedition 69 , which consists of Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin and Andrei Fedyayev, NASA astronauts Francisco Rubio, Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, and UAE astronaut Sultan Alneyadi. Four space tourists arrived at the ISS on May 22 aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft. They will spend eight days working together with the permanent crew.