NASA will provide live coverage of the launch and docking of the unpiloted Progress 96 spacecraft, a Roscosmos cargo vehicle carrying about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the International Space Station crew.
Progress 96 is scheduled to launch at 12:15 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Sept. 9, aboard a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA's live launch coverage will begin at 12 p.m.
After a two-day journey, the spacecraft will dock autonomously to the Poisk module's space-facing port at 2:37 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 11. NASA's arrival coverage will begin at 1:45 p.m.
The spacecraft will remain docked to the orbiting laboratory for about five months before departing to re-enter Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. Before Progress 96 arrives, the Progress 94 spacecraft will undock from the station at approximately 11:18 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 7, for its own destructive re-entry.
