Russian cargo craft Progress 66 arrives at the international space station

The unpiloted Russian Progress 66 cargo ship docked at the Pirs Docking Compartment of the International Space Station on Friday, Nasa said. “Today’s arrival of the Progress 66 cargo craft, just 24 hours after the capture of the Space X Dragon, makes four spaceships at the International Space Station,” the US space agency said.

The SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft docked to the space station on Thursday. SpaceX Dragon cargo craft earlier aborted its first docking attempt with the space station on Wednesday as it received an incorrect navigational update.

The Russian Progress 66, carrying almost three tonnes of food, fuel and supplies to the Expedition 50 crew, was launched on Wednesday from Kazakhstan. This was the first launch of a Progress cargo ship from Baikonur launch station in Kazakhstan since the Progress 65 supply craft was lost on December 1, 2016.

Progress 66 will remain docked at the station for almost four months before departing in June for its de-orbit into the Earth’s atmosphere. An upcoming SpaceX Dragon cargo resupply mission will have on board a technology demonstration module called Raven. The instrument is meant to automatically track high speed man made objects in space, and has three imaging instruments. The system has been unofficially named “the three eyed raven.”

With inputs from IANS

 

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