Russian Made Cargo Vessel Blasts Off Towards Station

The ISS Progress 41 cargo craft launched at 8:31 p.m. EST Thursday (7:31 a.m. Baikonur time Friday) from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. The Russian resupply craft will dock to the station’s Pirs docking compartment Saturday at 9:39 p.m. The Progress is carrying 1,918 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of oxygen, 926 pounds of water and 3,080 pounds of spare parts and supplies to the station.

Nine minutes after launch, the Progress alienated from the third stage of its Soyuz rocket, placing the unpiloted cargo craft into its preliminary orbit. The crew opened the hatch to the HTV2 at 3:47 p.m. Thursday as the global Space Station orbited 220 miles west of Chile.

In the coming days, a pallet loaded with spare station parts will be extracted from a slot in the cargo ship and attached to an experiment platform outside the Japanese Kibo module. Other cargo will be transferred internally to the station.