Russia sending a cargo spaceship to deliver supplies to ISS

A space freight cargo spaceship is on its way to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. It was launched successfully on Monday through a Russian Rocket. The cargo contains stores of food, water, supplies, and equipment and took off from Kazakhstan on a Soyuz rocket. It is a two-day trip, which will culminate with a docking at the station about 3:15 p.m. Eastern Time Wednesday.

NASA spokesperson told the media that the launch went well. The craft’s power-producing solar arrays and its communications antenna have been deployed without problems. Ever since the Columbia crash in the United States, grounding of NASA’s shuttle fleet has left station crews reliant on periodic Progress missions for water, food and other supplies.

These unmanned launches are not as capable as manned flights in terms of carrying freights. As a result, any problems in the Progress launch failure would force the crew to temporarily abandon the station and return to earth.

Reports also say that Russia sent a load of live snails through this mission for a series of tests on weightlessness. The mollusks are to return to Earth in late April along with the current crew, which includes Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and US astronaut Leroy Chiao.

NASA has also in the last couple of weeks made announcements related to the return of the Space Shuttle to the space.