Watch the Progress 78 cargo launch June 29

On Tuesday, June 29, 2021, Russia’s uncrewed Progress 78 cargo spacecraft will launch on a Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Site 31 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The resupply vehicle will bring about three tons of food, fuel, and supplies to the International Space Station (ISS). NASA has not shared any further details about the cargo. Live coverage of the launch will begin at 7:27 p.m. (23:27 UTC) on NASA TV, the agency’s website, and its mobile app. Translate UTC to your time. The spacecraft will spend about two days in orbit around Earth before docking at 9:02 p.m. on July 1 (01:02 UTC July 2). Watch here.

Progress will spend almost five months at the outpost’s Poisk module on the space-facing side of the station’s Russian segment. Later in the year, it will perform an automated undocking and relocation to the new Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module, which is scheduled to launch mid-July.

Roscosmos developed the Progress spacecraft to fill the need for a frequent inflow of essential payloads to make long-duration ISS missions possible. Previously, such loads were not practical to fit with passengers in the restricted space of a Soyuz. Tuesday’s launch will be the 169th flight of a Progress spacecraft. And, if all goes according to plan, Progress 78 will log 179 days in space.

The Progress resupply vehicle will depart from the ISS with some trash and a docking adapter on November 24. It’s thereby arranged to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and safely burn up over the Pacific Ocean.

Progress cargo craft bringing food and supplies to ISS. (? NASA) pic.twitter.com/1GnWWnXGII

— Andrew Rader (@marsrader) May 25, 2021

Bottom line: Watch a cargo spacecraft launch and dock with the International Space Station on June 29, 2021.

Via NASA