A little while ago the Progress MS-13 spacecraft docked with the International Space Station in the mission also referred to as Progress 74 or 74P. The Russian space freighter, which blasted off last Friday, December 6, is carrying food, water, scientific experiments, propellant and various hardware.

The Progress MS-13 cargo spacecraft regularly docked with the International Space Station’s Russian Pirs module using the automatic system that allows Russian spacecraft a direct berthing. During the week the crew will proceed with the opening of the hatch and the procedures to make the Progress MS-13 an appendix of the Station.

Generally, the International Space Station crew open the hatch of a cargo spacecraft and begins to unload its contents the day after its arrival, but yesterday another cargo ship, SpaceX’s Dragon, arrived in its CRS-19 mission. In these cases, there may be priorities in the unloading of tools, experiments and various hardware from both spacecraft so for example food and water, of which there is always a large sock on the Station, are unloaded later.

The mission of the Progress MS-13 spacecraft is substantially accomplished. In fact it can’t return to Earth so it will be filled with hardware failed or otherwise become unusable and assorted junk and will disintegrate returning into the Earth’s atmosphere. This mission epilogue will probably take place in July 2020 but the exact date depends on various factors.