Progress MS-05 Cargo Ship Successfully Launched to ISS While Dragon Closes In – UPDATE

Russia successfully launched its Progress MS-05 cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) at 12:58 am ET this morning.  It is the first Progress launch since a December 1, 2016 failure.  Meanwhile, SpaceX’s Dragon cargo spacecraft, which was launched on Sunday, will arrive on ISS in a few hours at about 6:00 am ET. [UPDATE:  Dragon’s arrival was aborted because of an apparent problem with the spacecraft’s GPS system.  SpaceX will try again tomorrow.]

Russia uses Soyuz rockets to launch both crews and cargo to the ISS (Soyuz is also the name of the spacecraft that transports crews).  Several versions of the Soyuz rocket exist.  This is the last launch of the Soyuz-U version.  A third stage failure of a Soyuz-U rocket doomed the Progress MS-04 mission on December 1, 2016.  Although a different version of the Soyuz rocket is used for crews, they are similar enough that NASA and Roscosmos were waiting for the success of this launch before resuming crew flights.

Launch of Russia’s Progress MS-05 Cargo Spacecraft on Soyuz-U Rocket from Baiknour Cosmodome, February 22, 2017 EST.  Photo credit:  NASA tweet.

NASA refers to this as Progress 66 because it is the 66th Progress mission to the ISS.  Progress has been in use since 1978, however, resupplying the Soviet Salyut 6, Salyut 7 and Mir space stations long before ISS existed.  The spacecraft has been upgraded several times over the decades and given different designations:  Progress, Progress M, Progress M_M and now Progress MS.  The first of the MS series was launched on December 21, 2015.

Progress MS-05 is carrying 2.9 metric tons of propellant, oxygen, water and dry cargo to the ISS.  Six crew members are aboard, forming Expedition 50:  NASA’s Peggy Whitson and Shane Kimbrough, the European Space Agency’s Thomas Pesquet, and Roscosmos’s Andrey Borisenko, Sergey Ryzhikov and Oleg Novitsky.   Docking is scheduled for 3:34 am ET on Friday.

International Space Station Expedition 50 Crew.  Photo credit:  NASA

Three other cargo spacecraft also take supplies to the ISS:  Japan’s HTV and two U.S. commercial spacecraft, SpaceX’s Dragon and Orbital ATK’s Cygnus.  NASA purchases delivery services from SpaceX and Orbital ATK rather than owning the rockets and spacecraft.

SpaceX launched its 10th operational Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) mission on Sunday, designated SpaceX CRS-10 or SpX-10.  The Dragon spacecraft, carrying 2.5 metric tons (5,500 pounds) of cargo, will arrive at ISS at about 6:00 am this morning.   Unlike Progress, which docks with the ISS, Dragon and Cygnus are berthed to the space station.  They maneuver close to the ISS and astronauts use the robotic Canadarm2 to reach out and grab them.  Ground controllers then use Canadarm2 to move the spacecraft and install them onto docking ports.  NASA TV coverage of Dragon’s arrival begins at 4:30 am ET, with grapple at about 6:00 am ET and installation at approximately 8:30 am ET.