Russia will launch a robotic cargo mission to the Worldwide Area Station early Thursday morning (Feb. 9), and you’ll watch the motion dwell.
The robotic Progress 83 freighter is scheduled to raise off atop a Soyuz rocket from the Russia-run Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday at 1:15 a.m. EST (0615 GMT).
Watch the launch dwell right here at Area.com, courtesy of NASA, or straight through the area company (opens in new tab). Protection will start at 1 a.m. EST (0600 GMT).
Associated: How Russia’s Progress spaceships work (infographic)
If all goes in line with plan, Progress 83 — which is carrying about 3 tons of meals and different provides — will chase the Worldwide Area Station (ISS) for 2 days, ultimately docking with the orbiting lab at 3:49 a.m. EST (0849 GMT) on Saturday (Feb. 11) for a roughly six-month keep.
You may watch the orbital meetup right here on Area.com as effectively, starting at 3 a.m. EST (0800 GMT) on Saturday.
Progress 83 will dock with the rear port of the Zvezda module, on the Russian aspect of the station. That port was vacated on Monday night time (Feb. 6) by the Progress 81 spacecraft, which had arrived on the ISS in June 2022.
The Progress is one among three presently operational robotic ISS resupply vessels, together with SpaceX’s Dragon capsule and Cygnus, which is constructed by Northrop Grumman.
Cygnus and Progress are designed to expend in Earth’s environment when their time in orbit is completed, whereas Dragon is reusable; the SpaceX capsule makes ocean splashdowns and may fly once more.
One other Russian automobile will launch towards the ISS from Baikonur later this month, if all goes in line with plan: A Soyuz spacecraft is scheduled to raise off on the night time of Feb. 19.
The Soyuz is a crew-carrying automobile, however this one will launch with out anybody on board; it’ll substitute one other Soyuz that was broken by an obvious micrometeoroid strike in mid-December. That different Soyuz has been declared unfit to hold astronauts again to Earth, except an emergency evacuation of the station is required.
Mike Wall is the creator of “Out There (opens in new tab)” (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a e-book in regards to the seek for alien life. Observe him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in new tab). Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Fb (opens in new tab).
