Russian Cargo Craft Docks to Station

An unpiloted Russian cargo ship carrying nearly three tons of supplies for the Expedition 34 crew docked to the International Space Station less than six hours after launch Monday.

The ISS Progress 50 resupply ship docked with the station’s Pirs docking compartment at 3:35 p.m. EST, delivering 1,764 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of oxygen and air, 926 pounds of water and 3,000 pounds of spare parts, experiment hardware and logistics equipment — 2.9 tons of supplies in all. The space freighter launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:41 a.m. EST (8:41 p.m. Kazakhstan time) on an accelerated, four-orbit journey to rendezvous with the station.

Inside the station’s Zvezda service module, Expedition 34 Flight Engineers Oleg Novitskiy and Roman Romanenko monitored key events during Progress 50’s rendezvous and docking using TORU, the Russian telerobotically operated rendezvous system. The Progress is designed to dock automatically via the Kurs automated rendezvous system, but the crew can use TORU to take over the process if difficulties arise.

The docking port on Pirs was previously occupied by the ISS Progress 48 cargo craft, which departed Saturday at 8:15 a.m. after spending six months at the station.