Progress cargo craft launches to resupply station crew

The unpiloted Roscosmos Progress 94 spacecraft reached orbit after launching at 7:59 a.m. EDT (4:59 p.m. Baikonur time) on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. One of the craft’s two KURS automated rendezvous antennas did not deploy as planned after launch, though all other systems are operating as designed.

Progress will continue toward a planned docking at 9:34 a.m. Tuesday, March 24, to the space-facing port of the station’s Poisk module. Roscosmos will troubleshoot the antenna; if it cannot be deployed, cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov will manually pilot the spacecraft using the TORU control panel in the Zvezda Service Module, a backup to the KURS system.

The spacecraft is delivering about three tons of food, fuel and supplies to the orbiting laboratory. Live rendezvous and docking coverage will begin at 8:45 a.m. on streaming platforms, including Amazon Prime and YouTube.

Kazakhstan, Baikonur Cosmodrome

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