Progress cargo ship docks with space station, tightening up on orbital parking

With today’s arrival of a Russian Progress cargo ship, the International Space Station now has three robotic spaceships and a Soyuz lifeboat parked at its ports. Two days after its launch from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome, the robotic Progress ship hooked up to the station’s Zvezda service module at 4:37 a.m. PT to deliver more than three tons of food, fuel and supplies. Another Progress is docked to the Pirs compartment, and a SpaceX Dragon capsule is attached to the Harmony module. Although orbital parking is getting scarce, rest assured that the space station will clear out a space for the Russian Soyuz capsule that’s due to deliver three new crew members late next month.