Russia will launch a robotic payload mission to the International Space Station in the early hours of Friday morning (June 3) and you will be able to watch the action live.
The unmanned Progress 81 cargo ship is scheduled to take off aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Friday at 5:32 EDT (0932 GMT). Watch it live here on Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly through the space agency; coverage will begin at 5:15 am EDT (0915 GMT).
The Progress 81 carries about three tons of food, propellant and equipment to the International Space Station (ISS). And these supplies will be delivered quickly, if all goes according to plan: the cargo ship will reach the ISS after completing only two Earth orbits, docking at the orbiting laboratory at 9:02 am EDT (1302 GMT) on Friday , if all goes according to plan.
Related: How Russia’s Progress spacecraft work (infographic)
You can also watch the live meeting and docking; coverage of these activities will begin at 8:15 am EDT (1215 GMT).
Many of Russia’s space associations have collapsed as a result of the nation’s evolution invasion of Ukraine. Soyuz rockets are no longer launched from the European spaceport into French Guiana, for example, and Russia has stopped selling Russian-made rocket engines to American companies. But Russia remains an integral part of the ISS program, as shown by the launch of Progress 81.
Progress 81 will be followed in relatively short succession by another cargo flight: the SpaceX CRS-25 robotic mission, which is scheduled to launch next Friday (June 10). And the ISS was also recently visited by another unmanned spacecraft: Boeing Starliner capsule, which made a crucial test flight into the orbiting lab from May 19-25.
That May mission, called Orbital test flight 2 (OFT-2) was probably the last major hurdle Boeing had to remove before NASA certified Starliner to carry astronauts. The first manned flight of the capsule could arrive before the end of the year, as long as the analysis of the OFT-2 data is not worrisome, Boeing and NASA officials have said.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 2:58 pm EDT on June 2 with the new target release date of June 10 for the SpaceX CRS-25 payload mission.
Mike Wall is the author of “Over there (opens in new tab) “(Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall (opens in a new tab). follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in a new tab) or activated Facebook (opens in a new tab).