Three space station astronauts – Cmdr.
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The Progress will remain docked to the ISS for four months getting filled with trash and discarded gear before it journeys back to Earth, burning up on reentry over the Pacific Ocean. According to the Daily Times Gazette, the payload breakdown included 3,133 pounds of spare parts and supplies, 1,940 pounds of propellant, 926 pounds of water and 106 pounds of oxygen.
Although three resupply missions in the last eight months have experienced catastrophic failure on launch, NASA’s associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations William Gerstenmaier commends the worldwide Space Station crew for doing an excellent job of balancing their edible supplies.
The situation was steadily becoming critical in the last few months and the crew had to balance their water and food stock.
The Progress M-28M ship, which is carrying 2.5 metric tons of fuel, oxygen, water, food and other supplies, was launched into orbit on Friday from the Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan.
“Even without processed water, we have enough water supplies on orbit until late 2015”, NASA spokeswoman Stephanie Schierholz said. The third failed mission was in October when a rocket with crew provisions was intentionally destroyed after problems developed during launch.
After a list of recent mission failures, there was a lot of pressure on Russia’s Progress 60 mission.
A previous launch of a Progress vessel in April also ended badly, as Russian flight control lost communication with the ship and could do nothing but watch it slowly descend and burn up in the atmosphere. The company’s CEO Elon Musk said that Federal Aviation Administration would release “preliminary conclusions” this weekend.
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Currently, the ISS crew consists of Russians Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko and American Scott Kelly. So, let’s hope for the best.
