The only ride to the International Space Station is back in business. Early Wednesday morning, Roscosmos launched the uncrewed Progress MS-05 spacecraft to the ISS aboard a Soyuz rocket 鈥� the first Soyuz launch since December鈥檚 unsuccessful Progress MS-04, which .
The loss of that rocket left future astronauts in a tenuous position. The Soyuz rocket is currently the to the space station, so until it was proven safe, no more astronauts could make the journey. That craft鈥檚 failure resulted in the loss of 2,450 kilograms of food, water, fuel, and equipment 鈥� but a failure with humans aboard could be a true disaster.
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The Russian commission investigating MS-04鈥檚 launch failure found that it may have been due to defective workmanship in the third stage of the three-stage rocket. Six minutes after a successful-looking launch, the third stage and the Progress capsule appeared to separate prematurely. Most of the resulting debris burned up in Earth鈥檚 atmosphere, and a few fragments fell in the Tuva region of Russia.
When it reaches the ISS on Friday, Progress MS-05 will replace the lost supplies 鈥� although they鈥檙e not running low yet. 鈥淐onsumables aboard the station are at good levels,鈥� Mark Garcia after the MS-04 incident.
More options for sending astronauts to the station are in the works: SpaceX鈥檚 Crew Dragon is expected to start shuttling astronauts on top of a Falcon 9 rocket at the end of 2017. Boeing鈥檚 CST-100 is also scheduled to start its uncrewed testing around the same time, aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket.
