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Hold my vodka, comrade – I got this: Ruskies blast supplies to the ISS

Step aside, Musk, and see how Ivan does it

Updated Astronauts on the International Space Station will cross their fingers and toes that Friday's resupply mission doesn't suffer a similar fate to the last three attempts.

On Friday at 05:55 UTC, a Progress 60 capsule filled with supplies is expected to blast off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan atop a Russia-built Soyuz rocket. It will carry three tons of cargo to the orbiting lab. The pod will be loaded with food, water, and other consumables that are in shorter supply than usual on the space station.

The failures of the Orbital Sciences resupply mission in October, the lost Russian Progress mission in April, and last weekend's SpaceX snafu, mean that ISS 'nauts have had to eat into their reserves of food and water. There's no danger of anything running out – NASA says it has supplies until October at least – but if Friday's mission fails too then plans to send three crew to the space station is likely to be put on hold.

Later this month, three astronauts are scheduled to head up to the ISS to join the three already in orbit, but that depends on the station being able to support them. With supplies running lowish, the team isn't going to want to put three more hungry mouths up there as a further strain on resources.

Typically, the ISS carries about six months of consumables. In the absolute worst case scenario, the crew also has a Soyuz capsule that they can pilot back down to Earth in emergencies.

The supply situation isn’t critical as yet, but with the astronauts literally eating into the space station's reserves, a successful resupply mission would be a welcome bit of good news for the ISS team. ®

Update

The launch – the most dangerous part of the mission – was a success and the supplies are now in orbit headed for the ISS. The Progress cargo podule has deployed its solar arrays and everything seems to be on track for rendezvous with the science lab on Sunday morning.

Update 2

It's time for space boffins to pop the champagne corks as the unmanned cargo ship has now successfully docked with the ISS.

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