The uncrewed Roscosmos Progress 86 cargo spacecraft docked at 1118 UTC(Dec. 3) with the International Space Station’s Poisk module, under remote control by cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub, who tracked its approach from inside the ISS. It launched atop a Soyuz rocket at 0925 UTC on Friday(Dec. 1) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Kononenko took control of Progress 86 remotely using a system called TORU, while the spacecraft was flying around the orbital station at a range of about 150 meters, apparently due to an issue with the cargo ship's own Kurs automated rendezvous system. After completing 37 orbits of Earth, Progress 86 was successfully docked with the ISS.
"During the flyaround, the Progress vehicle started drifting away from the expected attitude and was not aligned with the docking target," NASA spokesperson Anna Schneider said during live commentary. "The crew aboard the International Space Station has taken over manual control and recovered the expected attitude."
"Contact confirmed, capture confirmed," Kononenko radioed to Roscosmos mission control near Moscow. The Progress 86 and ISS were sailing 418 km over the western Pacific Ocean before docking.
Progress 86 is carrying 2,540 kg of supplies for the seven crewmembers of Expedition 70 currently living and working on the ISS. The supply includes food, equipment, supplies and science experiment gear tp be used by long-duration crews during their six-month stays on the station.
Unlike SpaceX Dragon cargo ships, Progress spacecraft are disposable and are designed to burn up in Earth's atmosphere at the end of their months-long missions.
WATCH Progress 86 dock with the space station