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Progress source replenishes international space station

926 pounds of water, plus food and oxygen, reach orbit to sate nervous 'nauts

The Russian Progress craft launched last week to bring supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) has successfully docked, bringing welcome supplies to the crew.

The last two ISS replenishment missions failed. In April another Progress spun out, then in late June a SpaceX Falcon 9 blew up before it reached orbit.

The two mission failures didn't leave the ISS crew in particular danger, as they were eating reserve supplies, which are sufficient to last until October. So, the arrival of Progress MS-02 was very, very welcome, rather than critical.

NASA says the supply craft docked with the ISS on Sunday, 251 miles over the south Pacific, southeast of New Zealand, at 3:11 AM.

Aboard was “more than three tons of food, fuel and supplies, including 1,940 pounds of propellant, 106 pounds of oxygen, 926 pounds of water, and 3,133 pounds of spare parts, supplies and experiment hardware”.

The ISS' next visitors, due to launch on July 22nd, are Kjell Lindgren of NASA, Kimiya Yui of JAXA and Oleg Kononenko of Roscosmos. The three will join the current mission 44. JAXA will soon send the H-II Transfer Vehicle, an unmanned cargo transfer spacecraft, to send more supplies and the CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) to the space station. ®

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