Progress MS-04 – Spaceflight Now

Launch failure probe prompts engine swap on Soyuz crew’s rocket

January 17, 2017 Stephen Clark

Russian engineers will replace rocket engines on two Soyuz rockets assigned to send a batch of supplies and the next crew to the International Space Station after an investigation revealed foreign objects or a manufacturing defect led to the crash of a Progress cargo craft on launch in December, according to Russian media reports and a statement from the Russian space agency.

Russian space station cargo freighter lost on launch

December 1, 2016 Stephen Clark

Russian mission control said Thursday an unpiloted Progress space station supply ship carrying nearly 5,400 pounds of rocket fuel, food, water and a new spacesuit burned up in Earth’s atmosphere shortly after it blasted off from Kazakhstan, and evidence points to a problem with the third stage of the cargo carrier’s Soyuz booster.

Russian Progress cargo capsule arrives at launch pad

November 29, 2016 Stephen Clark

Russia’s next Progress cargo freighter rolled out to its launch pad in Kazakhstan on Tuesday in a final move before blasting off Thursday at the tip of a Soyuz rocket to resupply and refuel the International Space Station.