New Russian Cargo Ship Docks at Space Station

[Rico]

Cool stuff...

An unmanned Russian space freighter docked at the International Space Station early Friday with a fresh delivery of chocolate and coffee for the orbital outpost's three-astronaut crew.

The automated cargo ship Progress 32 docked smoothly at a berth on the station's Earth-facing Pirs docking compartment at 2:18 a.m. EST (0789 GMT) as both spacecraft flew 215 miles (346 km) above southwestern China near the border of Mongolia.

"Today's a special day," space station commander Michael Fincke, of NASA, called down to Mission Control after Progress 32's arrival. "Thank you."

The docking occurred nearly three days after two satellites - one American, the other Russian - accidentally slammed into each other 490 miles (790 km) above Siberia in an unprecedented collision. NASA and the U.S. Space Surveillance Network are tracking two large debris clouds from the impact, but currently believe they represent only a slight increase in risk to the space station.

To make sure Friday's docking went as planned, Russian cosmonaut and flight engineer Yury Lonchakov watched over the cargo ship's arrival from a terminal inside the space station, where he floated at the ready to take remote control of the unmanned spacecraft should it veer off course. Lonchakov had to manually guide in the last cargo ship that arrived at the station, Progress 31, during its Nov. 30 docking.

But Friday's rendezvous appeared to be flawless, with the two spacecraft linking up without the need for human intervention.

source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090213/sc_space/newrussiancargoshipdocksatspacestation

[billybob476]

Very cool. Next stop...skynet!

[Jen]

Suh-WEET!  That's awesome!