Russian Spacecraft Progress 47 redocks with International Space Station

A Russian cargo spacecraft has successfully re-docked with the International Space Station (ISS) early Sunday after a failed attempt five days ago.

The unmanned Progress M-15M, which arrived at the ISS in April, undocked from the centre last Monday to conduct tests, but first re-docking attempt failed due to technical problems, Xinhua reported.Progress freighters have been the backbone of the Russian space cargo fleet for decades.

The robotic Russian Progress 47 spacecraft re-docked to the space station to test the new Kurs-NA docking system. The cargo ship safely approached the station and automatically attached itself to the Pirs docking compartment on the Russian segment of the massive orbiting laboratory at 9:01 p.m. ET (0101 GMT July 29). Russia intends to use the Kurs-NA docking system on future unmanned Progress spacecraft and manned Soyuz vehicles.

The space station’s Expedition 32 crew, led by Russian cosmonaut and station commander Gennady Padalka,monitored today’s docking test. There are currently six astronauts living at the orbiting complex, including Padalka, Russian cosmonauts Sergei Revin and Yuri Malenchenko, NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Joe Acaba, and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide.

The next Russian cargo ship, Progress 48, is slated to launch on Aug. 1 from the BaikonurCosmodrome in Kazakhstan.