Progress: successfully docked

At the end of Friday afternoon, the navigation system of the Russian cargo ship Progress M-06M lost its telemetry link with the International Space Station and the docking which was scheduled to take place 25 minutes later had to be aborted as the crew were unable to take manual control as was the case last May. The spaceship presented no risk of collision as it passed its target at a distance of 3 kilometres. In 32 years and 127 missions, this was the first time that a Progress cargo ship was unable to reach its target station. The Russian teams, therefore, repositioned and reprogrammed the spaceship for a second attempt without making use of the faulty link. This new approach ended in a successful docking on Sunday at 18:17 (16:17 GMT) above Central Asia. The provisions aboard the Progress M-06M included 1,210 kg of equipment and food supplies as well as 862 kg of fuel, 100 kg of water and 50 kg of oxygen. Should this load have been lost, the crew had sufficient stocks aboard the ISS to keep them going until October. The next supply ship is scheduled for September.

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