Delivers Needed Fuel, Supplies, Oxygen To The Orbiting Outpost

Traveling about 251 miles over the south Pacific, southeast of New Zealand, the unpiloted ISS Progress 60 Russian cargo ship docked at 3:11 a.m. EDT Sunday to the Pirs Docking Compartment of the International Space Station.

The craft is delivering more than three tons of food, fuel and supplies, including 1,940 pounds of propellant, 106 pounds of oxygen, 926 pounds of water, and 3,133 pounds of spare parts, supplies and experiment hardware for the members of the Expedition 44 crew currently living and working in space. Progress 60 is scheduled to remain docked to Pirs for the next four months.

The successful delivery follows two high-profile launch failures in recent months. First, a Russian Progress vessel was lost after it became unstable as it traveled to the station in March. That was followed by the catastrophic failure of a SpaceX Falcon 9 booster June 28th

Florida Today reports that SpaceX expects to release its preliminary conclusions about that launch failure later this week. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter that information would be posted on the SpaceX website following a briefing with the FAA and "key customers."

(Images provided by NASA)

FMI:  www.nasa.gov/station