NASA to Air Launch and Docking of Progress 96 Cargo Ship to the ISS

NASA will provide live coverage of the launch and docking of a Roscosmos cargo spacecraft carrying about three tons of food, fuel and supplies for the crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The unpiloted Progress 96 resupply spacecraft is scheduled to launch on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:15 p.m. EDT (9:15 p.m. Baikonur time) on Wednesday, September 9, with NASA's live coverage beginning at 12 p.m.

After a two-day trip to the space station, Progress 96 will dock autonomously to the Poisk module's space-facing port at 2:37 p.m. on Friday, September 11; NASA's arrival coverage begins at 1:45 p.m. The spacecraft will remain docked to the orbiting laboratory for about five months before departing and harmlessly burning up over the Pacific Ocean during re-entry.

Before Progress 96 arrives, the Progress 94 spacecraft currently docked to the station will undock at approximately 11:18 a.m. on Monday, September 7, for its own departure and planned destructive re-entry; NASA will not stream that undocking.

People have lived and worked continuously aboard the ISS for more than 25 years, advancing scientific knowledge and making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. The station helps NASA understand and overcome the challenges of human spaceflight, expand commercial opportunities in low Earth orbit, and build on the foundation for long-duration missions to the Moon under the Artemis program and to Mars.