14 DAY TRIAL // The Expedition 38 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) welcomed a Russian-built resupply spacecraft aboard the orbital lab yesterday, November 29. The Progress 53 capsule arrived at its designated docking port on the Russian Zvezda service module at 5:30 pm EST (2230 GMT).
The spacecraft was launched on Monday, November 25, aboard a Soyuz-FG rocket, from the Russian Federal Space Agency's (RosCosmos) Baikonur Cosmodrome, on the steppes of Kazakhstan. The reason it took so long for it to arrive is that it carried out a flyby of the ISS on Wednesday.
The purpose of this maneuver was to assess the functionalities of the new Kurs automated docking system, which RosCosmos plans to introduce on all of its Progress and Soyuz space capsules, Space Fellowship reports.
Expedition 38 astronauts are scheduled to open the hatches separating the two spacecraft today. They will then start unloading the 2.9 tons of supplies, experimental equipment, food, oxygen, water and personal items Progress 53 holds. After the vehicle is filled with refuse from the ISS, it will undock and be sent to burn high in Earth's atmosphere.