ISS Progress 37 Launches to Space Station The ISS Progress 37
cargo carrier launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in
Kazakhstan on April 28 at 12:15 p.m. EDT. Scheduled to dock at
the International Space Station Saturday, the unmanned Progress
spaceship is loaded with 2.6 tons of food, fuel, oxygen,
propellant and supplies for the Expedition 23 crew. At the time
of launch, the station was passing directly over the launch pad
in Baikonur and the crew reported seeing the Progress’ Soyuz
booster rocket engine ignition against the darkened Earth. The
Progress is similar in appearance and some design elements to
the Soyuz spacecraft, which brings crew members to the station,
serves as a lifeboat while they are there and returns them to
Earth. The aft module, the instrumentation and propulsion
module, is nearly identical. But the second of the three
Progress sections is a refueling module, and the third,
uppermost as the Progress sits on the launch pad, is a cargo
module. On the Soyuz, the descent module, where the