Robotic Supply Ship Takes Off in Russia, Heads to ISS

It's blast off for the Russian Progress 63P spaceship as it began its two-day delivery flight to the International Space Station (ISS) Thursday, March 31. The cargo ship, filled with over three tons of supplies is the second of its kind to leave for space in the last nine days and the third spaceship to launch towards the ISS in three weeks.

The spacecraft blasted off at 12:23 p.m. EDT from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome and was immediately concealed by a cloudy sky as it made its way to space. According to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officials, Progress 63P carries a wide range of shipment including water, propellant, oxygen and dry cargo.

Describing the launch to Mission Control Houston in a NASA TV broadcast, NASA spokesperson Rob Navias reported that it was "a flawless ascent to orbit". In a span of two days, the Progress spacecraft will makes its way to the ISS and is expected to arrive at about 2 p.m. EDT on Saturday, April 2.

This is not the first time that a robotic supply ship is sent to the space station. In fact, the space station has a number of spacecrafts belonging to its robotic cargo ship fleet. In 2012, the European Space Agency sent its "Edoardo Amaldi" Automated Transfer Vehicle-3 (ATV-3) to deliver goods to the ISS. Prior to that, the Japanese H-2 Transfer Vehicle (HTV), an unpiloted robotic cargo ship blasted off for the space station in Sept. 17, 2009.

The ISS is currently occupied by three astronauts of various nationalities including British astronaut Tim Peake, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and American astronaut Tim Kopra. All three of them  have spent over 100 days in space. They are also joined by three members of the Soyuz spacecraft that arrived a couple of weeks ago namely cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Oleg Skripochka and NASA astronaut Jeff Williams.