Russian Cargo Fail No Block To Today's ISS Dock

Today the unpiloted Russian cargo ship known as Progress 51 has reached the International Space Station and docked successfully. This news is extra positive due to the failure of the craft's antenna after initial launch, both Russian mission control and NASA confirming earlier this week. The craft has now docked – at 1225 GMT to be precice – after extra care was given to the landing due to the unopened antenna.

This situation allows Russian cosmonauts Roman Romanenko and Pavel Vinogradov to access three full tons of food, fuel, supplies, and a set of experiment hardware along with the rest of the crew of six aboard the ISS. Though the Kurs antenna remained undeployed, it would appear that the mission has been a full success. The final hard mate occurred at 8:34 a.m. EDT according to NASA.

This docking happened between the Progress 51 Russian cargo ship and the rear port of the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station. What you're seeing above is a video presented by Russian mission control of the Russian Federal Space Agency at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This launch made way at 6:12 a.m. EDT just two days ago en route to the ISS.

With the supplies brought in this week, the ISS will be stocked with an additional 1,764 pounds of propellant, 57 pounds of air, 926 pounds of water, 48 pounds of oxygen, and 3,483 pounds of spare parts and experiment hardware. For its trip back to our planet, the Progress 51 craft will be filled with trash and station discards. Good luck, team!

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