Posted: Thu, Nov 1, 2012, 5:25 AM ET (0925 GMT)
A Russian cargo ship launched early Wednesday and docked with the International Space Station several hours later. A Soyuz rocket carrying the Progress M-17M spacecraft lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 3:41 am EDT (0741 GMT, 1:41 pm local time) Thursday. Rather than take the conventional two days to arrive at the station, the Progress flew on a trajectory that took it to the ISS in less than six hours, docking with the aft port of the Zvezda module at 9:33 am EDT (1333 GMT). This was the second time that a Progress has flown an abbreviates launch-to-rendezvous trajectory, a technique that may later be applied to crewed Soyuz flights to the station. Later Wednesday another Progress spacecraft docked to the station fired its thrusters, adjusting the station's orbit to avoid a close approach by debris from an Iridium satellite that collided with a Russian spacecraft in 2009. That maneuver is not expected to delay Thursday's spacewalk by astronauts Suni Williams and Aki Hoshide to repair an ammonia leak in one of the station's radiators.
