Russia's Progress M-13M Cargo Ship Launched To International Space Station

MOSCOW -- A Russian cargo ship was launched successfully to the International Space Station on Sunday, clearing the way for the next manned mission and easing concerns about the station's future after a previous failed launch.

The unmanned Progress M-13M blasted off as scheduled at 2:11 p.m. Moscow time (1011 GMT; 6:11 a.m. EDT) from the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said.

"It was a perfect launch," Lyndin told The Associated Press, adding the ship successfully reached a designated orbit and will dock at the station Wednesday. A new crew will be launched to the space outpost on Nov. 14, he said.

A Progress launch failure in August, which was blamed on an "accidental" manufacturing flaw, cast doubts about future missions to the station, because the upper stage of the Soyuz booster rocket carrying the cargo ship to orbit is similar to that used to launch astronauts.

The next Soyuz launches were delayed pending the outcome of the probe. NASA said the space station – continuously manned for nearly 11 years – will need to be abandoned temporarily if a new crew cannot be launched by mid-November.

NASA space operations chief Bill Gerstenmaier congratulated Russia on the successful Progress launch.

"Pending the outcome of a series of flight readiness meetings in the coming weeks, this successful flight sets the stage for the next Soyuz launch, planned for mid-November," Gerstenmaier said in a statement. The station's crew, which has been reduced to three astronauts after the failed launch in August, will be restored to six in December when another trio of astronauts will be sent, he added.

The Russian spacecraft serve as the only link to the station after NASA retired the space shuttle in July.

Sundays' Progress mission was the second successful launch of a Soyuz booster rocket after the August mishap. Earlier this month, another Soyuz rocket launched the first two satellites of the European Union's Galileo navigation system from the Kourou launchpad in French Guiana. The launches followed inspections, which required the rocket engines to be sent back to manufacturers for close examination.

The August crash was the latest in a string of spectacular launch failures that have raised concerns about the condition of the nation's space industries. The Russian space agency said it will establish its own quality inspection teams at rocket factories to tighten oversight over production quality.

Comments

[Mister Grumpy]

12:26 PM on 10/31/2011

So how much is NASA paying for these launches? Anyone know?......

Money that could have been spent here in the USA........

[orbitxal1]

06:13 AM on 10/31/2011

I think we have a private American company, Space-X, launching a test flight to the ISS in late November to the ISS
America could be back to having the capability to supply the ISS on its own again if this works out. Maybe open the door for possible astronaut taxi service also.

[Rich Cash]

08:59 PM on 10/31/2011

SpaceX is not far from having an unmanned re-supply capability, but they're a long way from an "astronaut taxi service."

[orbitxal1]

10:27 PM on 10/31/2011

They are talking maybe 3 years to astronaut ferry service as their planned missions are being fast tracked. That would be nice but we will have to wait and see. For now ISS resupply would be nice. Space X is also looking at more launch base locations.

[Wesley Holbrook]

02:05 AM on 10/31/2011

Nah, too many manmade problems created on this planet. Why should man carry them to other worlds??? Rape their world's resources??? I don't think so...

[Rich Cash]

09:09 PM on 10/31/2011

And who's making use of those resources now? Little green men? Should we outlaw mining Helium3 on the moon or nickel/iron and water ice from the asteroids in order to preserve those "pristine environments" for future tourists? If we don't begin to develop the technologies to harvest these resources there won't be any future tourists, we'll all be dead.

[drdalej]

12:59 AM on 10/31/2011

Amazing! Automated flight and connection to the space station with no pilots. Great stuff.

[Rich Cash]

09:28 PM on 10/31/2011

The Russians have been doing this for many years. These guys are no slouches in orbital mechanics and their heavy lifting capabilty has always exceeded NASA's. The only reason they didn't beat us to the moon was because they put little emphasis on the safety of their cosmonauts.

[Tanrioldu]

12:31 AM on 10/31/2011

If America would stop spending hundreds of billions on war, they could afford a pretty decent space program.

[ThinkCreeps]

02:54 AM on 10/31/2011

They've got a pretty decent space program. If they stopped sending spam in the can they could afford an even better one, and still have the money for wars.

[lightningbolt]

12:44 PM on 10/31/2011

Spam?

[Rich Cash]

09:18 PM on 10/31/2011

NASA's budget has been slashed time after time and the excuse has always been to re-allocate the money to welfare and entitlement programs. The DoD's space budget has always far exceeded NASA's.

[RyanBurke]

08:08 PM on 10/30/2011

Duck and cover, people. Duck and cover.

[Mister Grumpy]

12:28 PM on 10/31/2011

Don't forget to place your head between your legs while doing so...........

[empress trudy]

06:24 PM on 10/30/2011

America is no longer a 'frontier-ish' kind of country. And apart from a few national pride programs this century from India and China and possibly Japan, once the ISS is shut down, manned space flight will be over. Not for a decade, for the rest of the century and beyond. We're done with that sort of thing as a nation. Not because of the cost but because it's not in our DNA anymore. My grandchildren won't even readily believe that man EVER walked on the moon - it will sound like mythology to them.

Leftists and rightists alike have been cheering for the end of America for 20 years. Ok, this is what it looks like. Stop complaining. Maybe "A Canticle for Liebowitz" will wind up being a documentary history.

[Aladdin Sane1]

07:52 PM on 10/30/2011

Well, that's an interesting opinion. Depressing, but interesting.

For those unfamiliar with the title:

"A Canticle for Leibowitz is a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by American writer Walter M. Miller, Jr., first published in 1960. Set in a Roman Catholic monastery in the desert of the southwestern United States after a devastating nuclear war, the story spans thousands of years as civilization rebuilds itself. The monks of the fictional Albertian Order of Leibowitz take up the mission of preserving the surviving remnants of man's scientific knowledge until the day the outside world is again ready for it."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz

[ThinkyMcgee]

11:54 AM on 10/31/2011

I have a much more hopeful opinion of our space-bound future. Clearly we're not about to stop putting satellites in orbit and sending unmanned robots into space to explore. As our communications, renewable energy technologies and computer technologies continue to improve at exponential paces, we will no doubt be able to have capable robot on other planets and the moon within the next 50 years. These robots will be able to withstand harsh conditions, explore, do complicated experiments, and even build permanent structures which we may later be able to use ourselves.
Human spaceflight is simply ridiculously inefficient in comparison, and until we completely master unmanned spaceflight I see no reason to put humans at risk and spend billions upon billions extra for human support systems for spacecrafts - it was a nice symbolic moment but realism should win out.

[empress trudy]

12:02 PM on 10/31/2011

Space science will soon be limited to whatever makes the most economic sense to put into earth orbit; communications, mapping, agricultural and water sensors and to a limited degree whatever space science physics forwards those goals. As far as probes going hither and yon to go find methane and water on Europa, never going to happen.

[Rich Cash]

09:44 PM on 10/31/2011

We need to establish self sustaining colonies on the Moon, Mars, or in Earth orbit as soon as we can. Sooner or later we're going to be confronted with a life-ending event here on earth, anything from a mega-volcano (e.g. Yellowstone), to a pandemic plague, to an asteroid or comet impact, to man-made self destruction. It may not happen for a million years, but it may happen next month. In any event, something of this nature WILL happen. How tragic would it be if our epitaph as a species were to read "They had the technology to save themselves, but not the will to do it..."

[BBrianCC]

04:58 PM on 10/30/2011

Don't worry...

My next invention will make rockets obsolete ;)

Warp drive later down the road... it's more difficult then I thought!

[Kasado]

06:02 PM on 10/30/2011

What's the problem ? You stand still and the universe moves around you at the speed of light.

[davyjones2112]

04:40 PM on 10/30/2011

Bush jr. was the one declared his grand vision for a MOON BASE and manned mission to mars.
Like he wanted to look like JFK. i just laughed . Yet as nasa sketched out the orion program , i became more enthusiastic. No suprise though Obama had to cancel it . after dubbya s 308 billon dollar war. And the country in a deep recession. Perhaps if we had worked together with the russians,like we do today. Avoided the entire cold war. Maybe today we'd havge a moon base.

[kjp12]

06:10 PM on 10/30/2011

I agree with 100%, we should be alot further along in space then we are. even in the medical field would be more advanced then it is, like having sugeries in space, being that the body joints expaned in space about 2 inch's.

[Aladdin Sane1]

07:55 PM on 10/30/2011

"Yet as nasa sketched out the orion program..."

Man, every time I see that I think it says "the onion program."

[tooncesrocks]

04:04 PM on 10/30/2011

There is fundamentally no business case for private enterprise to advance a space frontier. The timelines are way too long and the costs are stupendous. Once governments figure out the kinks and pave the way, then private enterprise comes in and improves efficiency and lowers cost.

...but as for advancing a frontier NEVA GONNA HAPPEN.

[mxytsplyk]

04:26 PM on 10/30/2011

True. Columbusʻ expedition was itself government funded (by the Spanish Crown). And though he was contractually required to receive 10% of whatever profit was derived from his discoveries, the issue remained in litigation for nearly 300 years.

[L I Beral]

04:32 PM on 10/30/2011

Find something to exploit on the Moon or Mars or Ganymede, like gold or platinum, and there will be a race to get there.

[tooncesrocks]

04:28 AM on 10/31/2011

Even if the moon were solid gold it still would not be profitable.

[mrvnlimar]

03:50 PM on 10/30/2011

Private industry will win the space race. The Branson Boys will be playing Hopscotch on the rings of Saturn if we don't get something going. But I doubt if anyone cares anymore. Space is old hat now, our blase attitude plus the money crunch will stall our efforts for some time to come. The private sector will win out.

[tooncesrocks]

04:05 PM on 10/30/2011

your post is so chock full of ignorance that there's no point in addressing any of your points except to point out that you seem to be totally clueless.

[mrvnlimar]

04:15 PM on 10/30/2011

Those are some pretty vague and vacuous statements without the facts and balls to back them up. As a 5yr old would say: Nananana, my daddy can beat your daddy. Do you have any glimmer of reasoning behind your inane, childish prattle?

[Louis Bernardi]

09:22 PM on 10/30/2011

True say!

[ThinkCreeps]

04:44 PM on 10/30/2011

Once Mr Branson gets an extra factor of 20 in energy and enters orbit, you can get back to us.
Mr Musk is in a much more promising position.

[GoogleMaster]

03:28 PM on 10/30/2011

What happened to the shuttle? I've been away. On business.

[dennishastings]

03:31 PM on 10/30/2011

This is a joke, isn't it? The shuttle flew it's last mission a couple of months ago. There is no longer a shuttle program. It was all over the news.

[orbitxal1]

03:38 PM on 10/30/2011

Which one? They will soon be arriving at museums across the country for the public's viewing pleasure.

[Forest GreenMan]

03:24 PM on 10/30/2011

Good!

Let's get on with the program before we get smucked by a comet or asteroid already.

You know what they say about putting all of your eggs in one basket.

[Baneblade]

02:57 PM on 10/30/2011

"A Progress launch failure in August, which was blamed on an "accidental" manufacturing flaw"

Is Huffpo insinuating that the flaw was not accidental?

[Aladdin Sane1]

08:06 PM on 10/30/2011

"Is Huffpo insinuatin­g that the flaw was not accidental­?"

The story is from the Associated Press, not the Huffington Post. Nonetheless, point taken.

[I try to be reasonable]

02:11 PM on 10/30/2011

We need some hardcore type of space race/exploration, stat. The Cold War is what drove it the first time. Sputnik scared the pants off of the US and drove our students to excel in science and math. The growth of the space program created many, many jobs throughout the country. Yes, much of the spread of what was built or station in what location can be viewed as pork. Why is Mission Control in Houston? Because LBJ was as senator who legislation helped birth the space program (National Aeronotics and Space Act, 1958). The Lunar Excursion Module was built on Long Island, NY. The Space Shuttle's SRBs are built in Utah and shipped to Florida. Lockheed Martin built the shuttle's main external fuel tank and shipped it from New Orleans. The Jet Propulsion Labs are in Pasadena, CA.

Everything has to come from somewhere. Our space program bolstered our national education and created tons of jobs throughout the nation over the last number of decades.

[oneeasyrider]

02:28 PM on 10/30/2011

Very good. Now define the purpose which should be easy compared to the larger more difficult problem. How to end MIC and endless GOP desire to rule/control the world while bankrupting the country.