Russia plans to launch a cargo mission to the Worldwide Area Station immediately (Sept. 16), and you’ll watch the motion stay.
The robotic Progress 96 spacecraft is scheduled to raise off atop a Soyuz rocket from the Russian-run Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan immediately at 9:33 a.m. EDT (1333 GMT).
You’ll be able to watch it stay right here at Area.com courtesy of NASA, or immediately via the agency, starting at 9:15 a.m. EDT (1315 GMT).
Progress 96 is loaded with about 3 tons of meals, propellant and different provides for the astronauts aboard the Worldwide Area Station (ISS). The freighter will ship this cargo two days after launch, if all goes in line with plan. You’ll watch rendezvous and docking actions when the time comes.
The freighter will stay docked to the orbiting lab for about 5 months. It can then be loaded up with trash and despatched all the way down to a fiery demise in Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.
The Progress 94 spacecraft met this fate on Sept. 7, departing from ISS’ Poisk module to make room for Progress 96.
Progress is one of four spacecraft that fly operational cargo missions to the ISS these days, along with Japan’s HTV-X, SpaceX‘s Dragon capsule and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus. All but Dragon are expendable, burning up in our air when their time in orbit is up.
There are currently seven people living aboard the ISS — NASA astronauts Jack Hathaway, Jessica Meir and Anil Menon; the European Space Agency‘s Sophie Adenot, who last month became the first French woman ever to perform a spacewalk; and Pyotr Dubrov, Andrey Fedyaev and Anna Kikina of the Russian space agency Roscosmos.