Russian space freighter docks with ISS
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The Russian Progress M-07M cargo spaceship has successfully docked with the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station (ISS), said the Mission Control center outside Moscow.
The spacecraft docked with the ISS in automatic mode at 03:58 p.m. Moscow time (1158 GMT), said Valery Lyndin, spokesman for the Mission Control.
Progress M-07M was to deliver over 2.5-ton supplies include fuel, media and fire equipment, oxygen, water, clothes, staples, fruits, vegetables, desserts, nuts and fish cans to the crew members, which were expected to be unloaded several hours later, after astronauts finished the checking of the airtightness and pressure of the cabin.
The current crew included Russian astronauts Alexander Skvortsov, Mikhail Kornienko and Fyodor Yurchikhin, as well as NASA astronauts Tracy Caldwell Dyson, Shannon Walker and Douglas Wheelock.
By the request of Yurchikhin, the spacecraft was also loaded with the novel "Peter the Great" written by Soviet writer Alexei Tolstoy. It carried nine DVD disks as well.
Russian astronauts at the space station will also receive census forms and instructions on how to fill them, as Russia was about to start a national census in October.
The cargo spaceship atop a Soyuz-U carrier rocket blasted off on Friday from Kazakh Baikonur space center.
According to Lyndin, besides Progress M-07M, currently there were three other spaceships at the ISS, including the Progress M-05M space freighter and two manned spacecraft Soyuz TMA-18 and Soyuz TMA-19.
As the long-enduring backbone of Russian space cargo fleet, the Progress freighters are also used to correct the ISS orbit and conduct scientific experiments.
The new generation of Progress vehicles is lighter in weight and equipped with a modern digital control system, which enables the spacecraft to dock with the ISS more accurately.
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