A few hours ago the Progress MS-14 spacecraft blasted off atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After about nine minutes it successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage and was placed on its ultra-fast track in its resupply mission to the International Space Station also called Progress 75 or 75P. After almost 3.5 hours it reached the International Space Station docking with its Zvezda module.

The Progress MS-14 cargo spacecraft regularly docked with the International Space Station’s Russian Zvezda 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-14 an appendix of the Station.

The Progress MS-14 cargo spacecraft is carrying a total of about 2,800 kilograms (almost 6,200 lbs) of various types of supply including food, water, air, oxygen, propellant and more such as a series of products for the International Space Station crew, various science experiments, tools and various hardware. In the next hours, the Station’s crew is scheduled to open the hatch and start unloading the cargo.

This is the 75th resupply mission for a Progress cargo spacecraft, but today there’s also a celebration of the liberation from Nazism in Russia, a date chosen because 75 years ago the then Soviet and American troops met on the Elbe river in Germany. This year the celebrations have a low profile due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a problem that also forced staff in Baikonur and other places where cargoes were prepared and transported to use precautions to avoid contagion.

The mission of the Progress MS-14 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 December 2020 but the exact date depends on various factors.