A new delivery of food, fuel and supplies has arrived at the International Space Station by way of a Russian supply ship.
Roscomsos’ Progress MS-30 (or Progress 91, as referred to by NASA) cargo spacecraft autonomously docked to the aft port of the space station’s Zvezda service module on Saturday (March 1) as the two vehicles orbited 260 miles (418 kilometers) over the South Atlantic Ocean. The 6:02 p.m. EST (2302 GMT) link up came two days after the Progress launched from the Baikonur Cosmdrome in Kazakhstan.
The uncrewed spacecraft is packed with about three tons (5,730 pounds or 2,599 kilograms) of deliveries for the station’s Expedition 72 crew. In addition to clothing, food, medical and sanitary supplies, the Progress also has aboard a new Orlan-MKS spacesuit to be used on Russian spacewalks.
The Progress also has equipment and hardware to support Roscosmos science experiments. There are materials to cultivate micro-algae as a potential food source; the tools needed to test how microorganisms affect different surfaces inside the orbiting lab; and the equipment to create advanced semiconductor crystals.
The station’s cosmonauts, including Aleksey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner and Alexander Grebenkin, will also find biomedical tools to assess the effects of microgravity on blood circulation and immunity.
The Progress will also supply the station with 2,094 pounds (950 kilograms) of fuel, 926 pounds (420 kilograms) of drinking water and 110 pounds (50 kilograms) of nitrogen to replenish the on board atmosphere.
The Russian spacecraft will remain docked to the station for about six months as it is refilled with refuse and trash by the ISS crew. The Progress will then undock and be directed into a destructive reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, disposing of it and its refuse on board.
Progress MS-30 is the 91st Russian resupply craft to launch since 1998 in support of the International Space Station program and 183rd Progress flight since the first in 1978.