Fresh Cargo Ship Docks at International Space Station

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Fresh Cargo Ship Docks at International Space Station
The ISS Progress 25 spacecraft approaches the International Space Station to dock at the aft end of the outpost's Zvezda service module on May 15, 2007. (Image credit: NASA TV.)

Astronautsaboard the International Space Station welcomed the arrival of a fresh cargoship early Tuesday after a flawless automated docking by the incomingspacecraft.

The Russian-builtProgress 25 supply ship arrived right on time at 1:10 a.m. EDT (0510 GMT),guiding itself to a berth at the aft end of the station's Zvezda service moduleas both spacecraft passed 220 miles (354 kilometers) above the northeast coastof Australia, NASA officials said.

"Congratulations on a successfuldocking," Russian ISS flight controllers told the station's three-astronautExpedition 15 crew.

Inside theorbital laboratory, Expedition 15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin stood at theready to take remote control of the arriving cargo ship should its autonomousdocking plan encounter a glitch. But the spacecraft remained on target after athree-day spaceflight that began with a lateFriday launch (Eastern Time) from the Central Asian spaceport of BaikonurCosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Progress 25is laden with more than 2.5 tons of fresh supplies for the ISS crew. Tuckedamong that 5,125 pounds (2,324 kilograms) of cargo are about 100 pounds (45kilograms) of air, 925 pounds (419 kilograms) of water, and 3,042 pounds (1,379kilograms) of dry supplies that range from new equipment and spare parts toclothing for NASAastronaut Clayton Anderson, an Expedition 15 crewmember slated to launchtowards the ISS aboard a NASA shuttle next month, the space agency said.

Russia's InterfaxNews Agency reported that a batch of 50 snails were also riding to the ISSaboard Progress 25 as part of a Russian Federal Space Agency experiment to studytissue regeneration in microgravity.

Yurchikhinand Expedition 15 flight engineers Oleg Kotov and Sunita Williams are slated tobegin unloading the new cargo ship at about 6:00 a.m. EDT (1000 GMT), NASAsaid.

Progress 25'ssuccessful Tuesday docking brings raises the station's total number of visitingspacecraft to three. The unmanned Progress 24 cargo ship remains moored to thestation's Pirs docking compartment while the Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft thatferried Yurchikhin and Kotov to the ISS last month is docked at an Earth-facingport on the orbital laboratory's Russian-built Zarya control module.

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Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.