Progress Resupply Ship Docks with Space Station

The Russian Progress M-26M resupply ship, carrying 3.1 tons of cargo, has successfully docked with the International Space Station.

Docking obetween the Progress and the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module occurred at 16:57 GMT as the International Space Station flew 257 miles above the Atlantic Ocean.

Current configuration of the station's Russian Segment
image credit: Space Shuttle Almanac

This afternoon's docking comes just six hours after the Progress lifted off atop a Soyuz rocket under overcast skies from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The arrival of the Progress comes in the midst of a very busy traffic period for visiting vehicles at the orbiting complex. Just this past Sunday(February 15), Europe's final Automated Transfer Vehicle vacated the aft port of Zvezda after spending six months docked there.

Inside the International Space Station, preparations are being made on the US Segment of the station for a trio of spacewalks which will be conducted by Expedition 42 commander Butch Wilmore and Flight Engineer Terry Virts of NASA. The first of the three Extra Vehicular Activities(EVAs) will commence on Friday, February 20.

But before all that, after a series of leak checks have been conducted between the newly-arrived Progress and station, the crew will open the hatch and begin unloading over 3,300 lbs of cargo on Wednesday morning.

Progress M-26M is expected to remain on board the station until late August.

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Soyuz Trio Arrive at International Space Station

The Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft carrying three astronauts and cosmonauts has arrived at the International Space Station, just six hours after launch from Kazakhstan.

The Soyuz rocket carrying Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, NASA astronaut Terry Virts and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency, lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 21:01 GMT.

On reaching Earth orbit less than nine minutes after launch, the Soyuz spacecraft deployed it's solar arrays, performed a series of orbital burns and manoeuvres- setting its course for the orbiting complex.

After a four orbit orbital rendezvous, the Soyuz successfully docked with the Rassvet Module of the International Space Station's Russian segment at 02:53.

The Expedition 42 crew aboard the ISS speaking with family.

The hatches between the Soyuz and the station were opened after leak checks were completed, as Shkaplerov, Virts and Cristoforetti were greeted by the Expedition 42 prime crew members already aboard the station, restoring the station's crew complement to six people.

The new station residents who are expected to remain on the ISS for the next five months, before returning to Earth in May 2015. They will begin life aboard their new home by adjusting to microgravity and becoming familiar with their surroundings.

This is the second long duration mission mission to the ISS for Shkaplerov, who spent six months aboard the orbital laboratory as a Flight Engineer during Expedition 29/30. 

This is the first long duration flight for Virts, and his second flight into space, after piloting Space Shuttle Atlantis to the International Space Station on shuttle mission STS-130 back in 2010.

This is the first flight into space for rookie ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, having been selected as an astronaut by the agency in 2009.

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