Russia Launches Cargo Spaceship To Resupply ISS
Posted 3-3-2005 at 02:13 AM
The 16-nation International Space Station used to rely heavily on U.S. shuttle flights. But Russian spaceships have been the only links with it since the Columbia space shuttle disaster on Feb. 1, 2003, which killed all seven crew members.
Russia launched a cargo spacecraft last night from the Baikonur cosmodrome to deliver food and other cargoes to the duo crew serving in the International Space Station (ISS).
The Progress M-52 resupply spaceship was launched aboard the Soyuz-U carrier rocket from Russia's Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan at 10:09 p.m. Moscow time (1809 GMT) and entered the designed orbit nine minutes later, the Itar-Tass news agency cited the mission control center outside Moscow as saying.
Delivering Basics
The Progress is set to dock with the orbiting station on Wednesday, bringing some 2.5 tons of cargoes including fuel, food, water, oxygen, musical disks and research equipment to Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao, who have been working in the station since mid-October.
The crew will receive equal proportion of Russian and American food this time to prevent food shortage. Sharipov and Chiao had to cut their food intake in December to make sure that the insufficient food onboard would last until resupply.
Also onboard the spacecraft are 50 live snails, the first load of living creatures to the station since the U.S. space shuttles were grounded in 2003 after the crash of the Columbia shuttle.
Experimental Snails
These special guests will undergo an experiment on their balance system, which will help to investigate the influence that weightlessness has on human equilibrium system in the space.
To prepare for Wednesday's docking, cargo spacecraft Progress M-51, which had been linked with the ISS for about two months, was disengaged Sunday.
The retired M-51 is now on a 10-day automatic flight for scientific research and is scheduled to be dumped in the Pacific Ocean on March 9.
The 16-nation ISS used to rely heavily on U.S. shuttle flights. But Russian spaceships have been the only links with it since the Columbia space shuttle disaster on Feb. 1, 2003, which killed all seven crew members.
-http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/news/40964.html
The 16-nation International Space Station used to rely heavily on U.S. shuttle flights. But Russian spaceships have been the only links with it since the Columbia space shuttle disaster on Feb. 1, 2003, which killed all seven crew members.
Russia launched a cargo spacecraft last night from the Baikonur cosmodrome to deliver food and other cargoes to the duo crew serving in the International Space Station (ISS).
The Progress M-52 resupply spaceship was launched aboard the Soyuz-U carrier rocket from Russia's Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan at 10:09 p.m. Moscow time (1809 GMT) and entered the designed orbit nine minutes later, the Itar-Tass news agency cited the mission control center outside Moscow as saying.
Delivering Basics
The Progress is set to dock with the orbiting station on Wednesday, bringing some 2.5 tons of cargoes including fuel, food, water, oxygen, musical disks and research equipment to Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao, who have been working in the station since mid-October.
The crew will receive equal proportion of Russian and American food this time to prevent food shortage. Sharipov and Chiao had to cut their food intake in December to make sure that the insufficient food onboard would last until resupply.
Also onboard the spacecraft are 50 live snails, the first load of living creatures to the station since the U.S. space shuttles were grounded in 2003 after the crash of the Columbia shuttle.
Experimental Snails
These special guests will undergo an experiment on their balance system, which will help to investigate the influence that weightlessness has on human equilibrium system in the space.
To prepare for Wednesday's docking, cargo spacecraft Progress M-51, which had been linked with the ISS for about two months, was disengaged Sunday.
The retired M-51 is now on a 10-day automatic flight for scientific research and is scheduled to be dumped in the Pacific Ocean on March 9.
The 16-nation ISS used to rely heavily on U.S. shuttle flights. But Russian spaceships have been the only links with it since the Columbia space shuttle disaster on Feb. 1, 2003, which killed all seven crew members.
-http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/news/40964.html
