Progress 39 spacecraft docks with ISS without a hitch

by Steven Mostyn - Sep 13 2010, 05:26

After blasting off on Friday morning following a brief weather delay, Russia's unmanned Progress 39 space freighter has successfully docked with the orbiting International Space Station (ISS).

The delicate docking procedure went without a hitch, unlike the most recent Progress mission back in July, which saw the craft overshoot the ISS on its first pass when on-board telemetry hardware failed to synch with the station.

“We have contact,” relayed ISS commander Alexander Skvortsov to Russian mission controllers as the craft came to rest at 7:58 a.m. EDT, some 216 miles (347 km) above the planet.

With the ship safely docked, the ISS crew will now begin unloading almost 2,000lbs of propellant, 110lbs of oxygen, 375lbs of water and 2,645lbs of spare parts and scientific equipment.  

Progress 39's mission to the ISS aboard a Soyuz rocket was initially delayed by 48 hours due to high winds around the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. 

NASA's space shuttle Discovery is currently scheduled to launch toward the station on November 1 on a maintenance run that will deliver a new storage pod and a robotic assistant.

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