Progress Cargo Ship Docks Successfully at ISS

By Nancy Atkinson - November 2, 2011 at 4:03 PM UTC | Space Exploration

Three days after launching on its Soyuz booster rocket, the Russian ISS Progress 45 cargo ship docked to the International Space Station on Nov. 2, 2011, delivering almost three tons of food, fuel and supplies. This is great news for the Space Station program, as the successful launch and today's efficacious docking certainly bodes well for the resumption of crewed flights to the ISS, diminishing the prospect for having the ISS unmanned. Soyuz rocket launches were halted for almost 2 months after the unexpected failure and loss of the Progress 44 vehicle in August. Today, the unmanned Progress automatically linked up to the Pirs Docking Compartment on the Russian segment and the crew will soon begin unloading the supplies.

Today is also historic for the ISS program, as 11 years ago today the first expedition crew launched to the ISS.

Next up will be the important launch of the next crew for the ISS on Nov. 13. NASA's Dan Burbank and Russia's Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin will arrive at the station Nov. 16, joining NASA's Mike Fossum, Russia's Sergei Volkov and Japan's Satoshi Furukawa for about six days before Fossum, Volkov and Furukawa return home.

"After the accident during the launch of a Progress cargo vehicle a couple of months ago, there's been some uncertainty in the program," Fossum said. "We've gone through a lot of work, the teams around the world, mostly in Russia, of course, have been involved with investigating the accident, trying to determine the root cause. We're very happy and this is a really huge step."

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com