spacetoday.net: Progress launched to ISS

Posted: Fri, Jun 17, 2005, 7:51 AM ET (1151 GMT)
Soyuz launch of Progress M-53 (Energia)

A Soyuz rocket successfully launched a Progress cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station early Friday. The Soyuz rocket lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:09 pm EDT Thursday (2309 GMT) and placed the Progress M-53 spacecraft (called Progress 18 spacecraft by NASA) into orbit 10 minutes later. The Progress is scheduled to dock with the ISS at 8:44 pm EDT Saturday (0044 GMT Sunday). The spacecraft is carrying over two tons of food, water, propellant, and other supplies, including both oxygen and solid fuel oxygen-generation canisters to supplement the station's oxygen supplies given the failure of the station's Elektron oxygen generator. Also on board the progress is a new digital camera that the station crew will use to inspect the space shuttle Discovery when it arrived at the station next month on the first post-Columbia mission.