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Success! Progress 48 arrives at ISS in less than 6 hours

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The Russian Progress 48 docking to the International Space Station Wednesday
The Russian Progress 48 docking to the International Space Station Wednesday
In a first for Earth’s space ambitions, a space station received food and supplies from a cargo ship on the same day of the launch.

The Russian Progress 48 unmanned freighter launched Wednesday afternoon EDT to make the historic attempt to dock with the International Space Station in six hours.

The craft parked itself at the Pirs docking component ahead of schedule, at 9:19 p.m. Wednesday.

NASA said the docking went smoothly and the Progress performed flawlessly in this revolutionary same-day docking procedure.

The plan is to eventually be able to send crew to the station in the same six-hour window, reducing wasted time spent aboard a Soyuz capsule. Until now, it took two days to blast off and rendezvous with the iSS.

Russia to attempt same-day rendezvous with ISS today

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The Russian Progress 48 is raised into launch position ahead of its Aug. 1, 2012 launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The unmanned capsule will try to launch and deliver tons of cargo to the International Space Station in the same day for the first time ever (Media credit/RSC Energia)
The Russian Progress 48 is raised into launch position ahead of its Aug. 1, 2012 launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The unmanned capsule will try to launch and deliver tons of cargo to the International Space Station in the same day for the first time ever (Media credit/RSC Energia)
You might not be aware, but space history may be made today if a Russian Soyuz successfully blasts off and the Progress 48 unmanned cargo freighter makes a successful rendezvous with the International Space Station.

So what? Doesn’t this happen all the time?

Well, yes. But it’s usually a two-day trip from blast-off, to orbit, to rendezvous, to docking. Today’s mission will try to put the freighter together with the ISS on the same day. This is a critical move, as “help” has always been about 48 hours away if anything ever went wrong on the station. Today’s mission could cut that down to about six hours.

Progress 48 is scheduled to launch at 3:35 p.m. EDT and dock with the ISS at 9:24 if all goes well.

If the mission is successful, it will translate into quicker arrivals and departures for crew members in the future, letting them spend more time in the station doing work instead of wasting days on the trips.

The Soyuz also isn’t exactly what you’d call “comfortable,” so if you can take a day and a half off time spent in those cramped quarters, it’s a win.