An unmanned Russian supply ship carrying much needed food, water and supplies to the International Space Station managed to successfully dock with the orbiting laboratory this Sunday, 4th July 2010, two days late after the first attempt didn’t go quite as planned.
The Progress cargo ship was supposed to have hooked up with the ISS on Friday, but the procedure failed because of interference caused by an activated transmitter for the manual rendezvous system, which overrode the automated system. According to Russian station commander Alexander Skvortsov, this meant that Progress was rotating uncontrollably as it drew near the ISS and so the docking procedure was aborted – though both NASA and Russian officials said that the ship was never out of their control.
The Progress ships have been the backbone of Russia's unmanned cargo ship program for many years now, and their importance will only increase as the U.S. space shuttle program comes to an end next year.
Currently, the space station has 3 Russian and 3 U.S. astronauts aboard as it orbits around 220 miles (350 kilometers) above the Earth.
The Progress cargo ship was supposed to have hooked up with the ISS on Friday, but the procedure failed because of interference caused by an activated transmitter for the manual rendezvous system, which overrode the automated system. According to Russian station commander Alexander Skvortsov, this meant that Progress was rotating uncontrollably as it drew near the ISS and so the docking procedure was aborted – though both NASA and Russian officials said that the ship was never out of their control.
The Progress ships have been the backbone of Russia's unmanned cargo ship program for many years now, and their importance will only increase as the U.S. space shuttle program comes to an end next year.
Currently, the space station has 3 Russian and 3 U.S. astronauts aboard as it orbits around 220 miles (350 kilometers) above the Earth.
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