LONDON: An unmanned Russian rocket is scheduled to blast off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:55 a.m. ET Friday on a supply run to the International Space Station.
NASA says the Progress supply ship will ferry up more than 3 tons of food, fuel, water, oxygen and supplies. It is expected to dock with the space station on Sunday at 3:13 a.m. ET.
Missions like this can be fairly routine, but three spacecraft carrying tons of supplies to the space station have been lost since last October:
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon supply capsule exploded shortly after liftoff Sunday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It was carrying a spacesuit, water filtration equipment, crew provisions, food, water, student experiments and the first International Docking Adapter. The 1,000 pound adapter was meant to be a portal where SpaceX and other commercial spaceships carrying astronauts would dock with the space station.
SpaceX rocket explodes after launch
Another Russian rocket, Progress 59, went out of control after launch on April 28 and burned up on re-entry in May. It was carrying crew clothing, spacewalk hardware, propellant, oxygen, water, spare parts, supplies and experiments.
In October 2014 an Orbital Space Sciences Corporation Antares rocket had to be destroyed when a problem developed after launch. It was carrying crew provisions, experiments and equipment.
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