Progress 96 Lifts off With Nearly Three Tons of Supplies for the Space Station

A Roscosmos Progress 96 freighter lifted off toward the International Space Station on Sept. 16 with nearly three tons of food, fuel and cargo aboard, NASA said. The spacecraft carries no crew; it launched on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:33 a.m. EDT and reached orbit safely.

The flight is a routine resupply run. Almost nothing the crew eats or repairs with is made in orbit, so it arrives by freighter, and NASA's station blog lists this load as food, fuel and supplies for the seven people aboard.

Docking is scheduled for about 9:46 a.m. EDT Saturday, Sept. 19, at the space-facing port of the Poisk module. Progress ships dock automatically, with nobody flying them in.

Progress 96 is not the only freighter at the station: Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL has been attached to the Unity module since April, and the crew was still moving cargo in and out of it on Sept. 16.

NASA and SpaceX are now targeting early October at the earliest for the launch of Crew-13, the next group of astronauts due at the station. NASA said the team replaced an oxidizer valve in the Dragon spacecraft's propulsion system after a leak was found earlier in processing, and that the new date also allows for readiness reviews and coordination of station operations.