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NASA

Progress cargo ship safely en route to ISS

James Dean, Florida Today
ISS Progress 47 is shown docked at the International Space Station’s Pirs docking compartment prior to its departure Saturday, April 25.

A Russian spacecraft is safely on its way to the International Space Station with more than 3 tons of supplies that could alleviate a shortage caused by a string of failed cargo missions.

The unpiloted Progress freighter reached orbit nine minutes after a 12:55 a.m. EDT Friday blastoff atop a Soyuz-U booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

"A flawless ride to orbit," reported NASA TV commentator Rob Navias.

The successful launch came days after a SpaceX rocket broke apart just over two minutes after its liftoff last Sunday from Cape Canaveral, sending 5,000 pounds of space station cargo into the Atlantic Ocean, and followed a failure by the previous Progress mission in April.

Last October, another ISS supply run ended when an Orbital ATK Antares rocket exploded seconds after blasting off from Virginia.

The Progress craft is due to dock at the space station at 3:13 a.m. Sunday.

"We're hoping that we get this one, obviously," NASA astronaut and station resident Scott Kelly said Thursday before the launch. "We expect that it's going to arrive on time, but certainly we're always prepared for the worst."

The station crew flying 250 miles up was asleep when the launch occurred.

The orbiting research complex has enough food to last into October. A successful Progress docking Sunday would extend those provisions by a month.

A Japanese cargo ship is scheduled to launch in August, and an ATK Orbital Cygnus craft by the end of the year.

A successful Progress mission should also clear the way for another three-person crew to launch on July 22 in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, doubling the station's Expedition 44 crew to its full six-person capacity.

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