Washington: A Russian cargo ship carrying almost three tonnes of food, fuel and supplies for the Expedition 63 crew reached the International Space Station Saturday, NASA has said.
Traveling about 418 kms over Northwestern China, south of the Mongolian border, the unpiloted Russian Progress 75 cargo ship docked at 1.12 am EDT to the Zvezda Service Module on the Russian segment of the complex, the US space agency said in a blog.
Progress 75 will remain docked at the station for more than seven months before departing in December for its deorbit in Earth’s atmosphere.
Now in its 20th year of continuous human presence, the space station provides a platform for long-duration research in microgravity and for learning to live and work in space.
Experience gained on the orbiting lab supports Artemis, NASA’s program to go forward to the Moon and on to Mars.
Among the investigations on which the space station crew performed work during the week of April 20 included “Food Acceptability” which examines the effect of repetitive consumption of the somewhat limited selection of foods available during spaceflight.
“Menu fatigue” resulting from this limited choice may, over time, contribute to the loss of body mass often experienced by crew members.