A new payload of supplies is heading to the International Space Station.
Russia has launched the robotic cargo ship Progress 87 on a Valentine's Day delivery mission towards the International Space Station tonight (February 14).
The cargo ship lifted off on a Soyuz rocket from the Russian-operated Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 10:25 p.m. EDT (0325 GMT and 8:25 a.m. February 15 local time at Baikonur).
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The Progress 87 ship is carrying about 3 tons of food, fuel and other supplies.
If all goes according to plan, the cargo ship will arrive at the orbiting laboratory Early Saturday (February 17)docking with the Russian service unit Zvezda in 1:12 a.m. EDT (0612 GMT). You can watch this encounter live here on Space.com, via NASA; Coverage will begin on 12:30 a.m. EDT (0530 GMT) on saturday.
Progress is one of three robotic spacecraft currently flying resupply missions to the International Space Station, along with Northrop Grumman's Cygnus spacecraft and SpaceX's Cargo Dragon capsule.
Progress and Cygnus are spent spacecraft, burning up in Earth's atmosphere when their time in orbit is up. But Dragon is designed to be reusable; It lands safely in the ocean under parachutes, which means it can bring scientific samples back to Earth.
Editor's note: This story was updated at 10:45 PM EST on February 14 with news of the successful liftoff.
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