Russia’s space agency/space conglomerate successfully launched a Soyuz 2.1a launch vehicle from Baikonur Cosmodrome, near Tyuratam, Kazakhstan at 0925 GMT on 1 December 2023. The launch vehicle was carrying Progress MS-25, a resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). On 3 December 2023 at 1118 GMT, Progress MS-25, the uncrewed re-supply craft launched on 1 December 2023, docked at the ISS’s Poisk module delivering food, fuel and supplies. Originally planned as an autonomous docking, ground flight controllers found there was an an alignment issue that required manual override of the docking procedure. Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko took over manual control of the docking from inside the ISS using the TORU docking system. Kononenko successfully guided the re-supply craft back into alignment before manually docking the spacecraft.
David Todd contributed to this report.
The International Space Station (ISS) as seen from the Progress MS-25 spacecraft during its approach. Courtesy: Roscosmos
