A little while ago the Progress MS-1 spaceship blasted off atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After about ten minutes it separated successfully from the rocket’s last stage and and got in route. This is the latest evolution of the Progress space freighter which began the resupply mission to the International Space Station also referred to as Progress 62. The spacecraft was launched on the route that requires a two-day journey.

The mission of the Progress MS-1 spacecraft is part of the International Space Station’s resupply program but the last year has been far from routine. In particular, the Progress M-27M cargo ship was lost in April 2015 and it was one of the first uses of the Soyuz 2.1a rocket. Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, concluded that there was a problem in the coupling between that version of the Soyuz rocket and the spacecraft that was fixed.

The Progress MS-1 cargo spacecraft carries a total of more than 2.8 tons of supplies of various kinds: food, water, oxygen, fuel and more. For Russia it’s an important mission because the spacecraft is the first of the new Progress MS series, which includes several improvements over the previous version.

The Progress MS variant is equipped with a new external compartment that allows to deploy small satellites. Major improvements were made to the spacecraft’s communications systems, which can now connect to the Russian Luch satellites to maintain constant contact with the mission control center.

Navigation systems have been updated as well allowing the Progress MS spacecraft to connect to navigation satellites, the Russian Glonass system but also the American GPS to determine its position independently. A new version of the docking system called Kurs NA replaces the previous Kurs A.

Generally the Russian spacecraft going to the International Space Station use the fast path that requires six hours of journey. Instead, the Progress MS-1 freighter was launched into the route that takes two days to allow the testing of the software systems on board. For this reason, the spacecraft will reach the station on Wednesday, around 10:30 AM UTC.

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