Space

Progress cargo ship with computer equipment docks with ISS

RIA Novosti

06/08/2007 11:51 MISSION CONTROL (near Moscow), August 6 (RIA Novosti) - The Progress M-61 cargo spacecraft carrying food, water, and fuel supplies for the crew, and equipment to repair onboard computers has automatically docked with the global orbital station, the mission control said.

The cargo ship docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on schedule at 22:40 Moscow time (18:40 GMT) Sunday delivering much needed additional equipment to fix the onboard laptops of the Russian segment, which crashed on June 11. The Russian crew, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov, had temporarily repaired the damage but extra equipment was required.

The Progress also delivered equipment to conduct space experiments as part of the Japanese program. This is the third Russian cargo spacecraft sent to the ISS this year, and by the end of 2007 the Soyuz cargo ship will also make a scheduled flight to the ISS.

Apart from Yurchikhin and Kotov, the current ISS crew includes American astronaut Clayton Anderson.