Update: Cargo ship malfunctions

From NASA Reports
The crew of the International Space Station is safe, but a cargo ship due to resupply the station has malfunctioned. Image: NASA.
The crew of the International Space Station is safe, but a cargo ship due to resupply the station has malfunctioned. Image: NASA.
Ever wonder what it would be like to settle in the middle of nowhere with nary a grocery or hardware store in sight? Well, astronauts of the International Space Station don't have to imagine -- especially after a cargo ship headed their way malfunctioned April 28.

     Russian flight controllers were apparently unable to communicate with a resupply ship bound for the station, according to NASA. As a result, attempts to link the cargo ship and space station were postponed.  
     And on April 29, NASA announced that docking had been called off for the spacecraft. Astronauts interviewed by the Associated Press said the spacecraft would fall out of orbit and re-enter the atmosphere, burning up as it does so.
     A NASA news release noted that the six space station crew members are safe and will continue their work with “sufficient supplies.” 
     The cargo ship’s takeoff was without incident, the space agency reported. Called the ISS Progress 59, the spacecraft launched early on April 28 from Kazakhstan on a Soyuz rocket headed for the space station.
     But problems developed as the cargo ship separated from the Soyuz booster’s third stage. Russian flight controllers couldn’t determine “whether navigational antennas had deployed and whether fuel system manifolds had pressurized as planned,” NASA’s press release said.
     While attempting to nail down the problem, the Russians put the cargo ship in orbit and postponed attempts to dock it to the space station.
     NASA took pains to point out that the Russian and U.S. sides of the station are adequately supplied beyond the next resupply flight. (A SpaceX commercial resupply mission is set to launch June 19 or thereafter.)
     Even so, the cargo of Progress 59 includes more than three tons of food, fuel and supplies, including 1,940 pounds of propellant, 110 pounds of oxygen, 926 pounds of water and 3,128 pounds of spare parts, supplies and scientific experiment hardware.
     The space agency said U.S. supplies on the cargo ship included spare parts for the environmental control and life support system, backup spacewalk hardware and crew clothing.

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