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Russian resupply spacecraft docks onto ISS to deliver needed provisions

By Andrew V. Pestano
The Progress 60 Russian cargo craft landed onto the International Space Station on Sunday. Photo courtesy of Scott Kelly/Twitter
The Progress 60 Russian cargo craft landed onto the International Space Station on Sunday. Photo courtesy of Scott Kelly/Twitter

WASHINGTON, July 5 (UPI) -- The Russian Progress 60 spacecraft docked onto the International Space Station on Sunday to deliver the station's crew much-needed supplies.

The unmanned cargo craft docked onto the ISS's Pirs Docking Compartment, where it will remain for the next four months. The crew reported it "feels like Christmas in July."

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"The craft is delivering more than three tons of food, fuel and supplies, including 1,940 pounds of propellant, 106 pounds of oxygen, 926 pounds of water, and 3,133 pounds of spare parts, supplies and experiment hardware for the members of the Expedition 44 crew currently living and working in space," NASA said in a statement.

The crew is taking part of an experiment to determine the effect of the conditions of living in outer space on the human body for one year.

Although the crew had enough supplies to work safely until October, the arrival of the Progress 60 is welcome, especially after a series of failed attempts to deliver supplies to the station.

On June 28, SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket carrying supplies to the ISS exploded shortly after launch. The Progress 59 Russian rocket went out of control after launch in April and burned-up during re-entry the next month. In October, a rocket carrying provisions for the ISS crew had to be destroyed after a problem developed after launch.

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