VIDEO: Expedition 42-43 mission preview

Russia’s Progress M-26M cargo carrier lifted off Tuesday aboard a Soyuz rocket, climbed through clouds and into orbit, then executed an on-time radar-guided docking with the International Space Station six hours later. See photos of the supply ship’s launch.

A three-member space crew returned to Earth just after sunrise Thursday in Kazakhstan, descending through a sun-splashed sky under an orange and white parachute before dipping through fog for a rocket-cushioned touchdown on the snowy steppes of Central Asia.

Russia launched a Progress resupply mission Tuesday heading for the International Space Station with more than 6,000 pounds of fuel, supplies and experiments to support the lab’s six-person crew, and the automated cargo craft sailed to a smooth link-up with the complex less than six hours later.