On This Day In Space: July 5, 2015: Russian cargo ship arrives at space station (Image Credit: Space.com)
On July 5, 2015, a Russian Progress cargo ship successfully docked with the International Space Station, returning Russia’s resupply ship to service after a failure. The Progress 60 spacecraft launched into orbit days earlier, on July 3, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Russia’s Progress Spacecraft: ISS Supply Ship
Progress 60 was packed with more than 3 tons of food, water, fuel, hardware and other supplies for the Expedition 44 crewmembers aboard the space station. This successful delivery ended a streak of cargo launch failures after a SpaceX rocket exploded, another Progress spacecraft fell back to Earth after launch and an Orbital Sciences Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo ship exploded just after liftoff in October 2014. Thankfully this mission went more smoothly than the two right before it.
Progress 60 remained docked at the space station until Dec. 19. After the astronauts stuffed it with trash, they sent it off to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
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