Cargo craft launches as crew prepares for space shuttle

Photo by Roscosmos PAO

The ISS Progress 42 resupply craft launches on time from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.

The ISS Progress 42 (P42) resupply craft has launched to replenish the International Space Station. The P42 launched Wednesday morning at 9:05 a.m. EDT (7:05 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Russian cargo craft will dock to the Pirs docking compartment Friday at 10:29 a.m.

The P42 replaces the ISS Progress 41 cargo craft, which undocked last week and was deorbited Tuesday morning after engineering tests. The new Progress is loaded with 1,940 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of oxygen and air, 926 pounds of water and 2,976 pounds of maintenance hardware, experiment equipment and resupply items.

Space shuttle Endeavour will launch Friday at 3:47 p.m. to deliver the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer and spare parts to the orbital laboratory. The STS-134 mission is scheduled to last 14 days and will be Endeavour’s last flight. The four spacewalks planned while Endeavour is docked at the station also will be the last performed by shuttle astronauts. While the crew members await the new resupply craft and the shuttle they continue with science. The Expedition 27 crew is also at work maintaining station systems throughout the U.S. and Russian orbital segments.