Progress 64 cargo was sent into space today at 5:41 p.m. from Balkonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The vehicle carries a load of food, fuel and Science payloads that are going to be delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) crew. The objective of this mission is to supply the crew in the space station with the necessary items and food to sustain their presence in the station. The supplies are delivered after Progress is docked with the space station´s compartment.
It took less than ten minutes after launch for the supplying Spacecraft to reach a preliminary orbit after which it deployed its solar panels and navigational transmitters.
After this maneuvers, Progress will chase the ISS and on Monday July 18, it will dock to the ISS´s compartment. Following this, the spacecraft will remain locked to the ISS for a little over six months and on January of 2017, it will undock and deorbit into the atmosphere of earth.
Progress Spacecraft
This is a Russian cargo spacecraft especially designed to maintain a constant supply of items and food to extend the time of space missions and crew while on the ISS. While it does not carry a crew, it can be accessed after it is docked with the ISS. It consists of three modules-the pressurized forward module, which carries the supplies for the crew; the fuel compartment and a propulsion module, which can be utilized to boost the orbit of the station once it is docked.
Resupplying space stations
Progress has supplied space stations since the 70s, when the first Salyut space station was put in orbit around earth, and as recently as the ISS. There are from three to four flights to the ISS every year. On every mission, Progress remains docked for as long as it´s needed, then, it is filled with waste materials form the ISS and detached form the station.
Following this, it is deorbited into the earth´s atmosphere, where it will burn up along with all of its waste cargo.
Those who would like to see the arrival of the spacecraft and cargo to the ISS can tune in to NASA´s TV on Monday at 7:45 p.m. The iss párticipates in varies science experiments and research studies for the adnvancement of sustainalbe development in space and on earth.
