MOSCOW, February 17 The Progress MS-26 cargo spacecraft, launched on Thursday from Baikonur on a Soyuz-2.1a rocket, will dock with the Russian Zvezda module «International Space Station on Saturday, Roscosmos reported.
The spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on a Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle on February 15 at 06:25 Moscow time. Docking to the ISS is expected on February 17 at 09:12 Moscow time. In total, the ship will remain in space for 180 days.
The ship will deliver more than 2.5 tons of cargo to the station, including almost one and a half tons of apparatus and equipment for station systems, packaging for scientific experiments, clothing, food, medical and sanitary products for astronauts, 580 kilograms of fuel for refueling the station, 420 kilograms of drinking water and 40 kilograms of nitrogen.
Among the cargo are consumables for the new scientific experiment «Fullerene» to grow fullerite crystals in the laboratory module «Science» — the third crystalline form of carbon, representing a new class of semiconductors. The Progress MS-26 will also carry equipment for the new Orbita-MG scientific experiment to create a monitoring system that will detect cracks and other leaks in the ISS housing.
The crew of the 70th long-term expedition is currently working at the station — Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub and Konstantin Borisov, NASA astronauts Jasmine Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen and JAXA astronaut Satoshi Furukawa.
/>