Roscosmos - Soyuz - Progress MS-26 - LS 31/6 - Baikonur - Space Affairs Livestream

Roscosmos will launch from Launch Site 31/6 of the Cosmodrome Baikonur in Kazhakstan the Progress MS-26 cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station. The launch is set for February 15, 03:25 UTC, 04:25 CET. The Progress (Russian: Прогресс) is a Russian expendable cargo spacecraft. Its purpose is to deliver the supplies needed to sustain a human presence in orbit. While it does not carry a crew, it can be boarded by astronauts when docked to a space station, hence it is classified as crewed by its manufacturer. Progress is derived from the crewed Soyuz spacecraft and launches on the exact vehicle, a Soyuz rocket. Progress has supported space stations as early as Salyut 6 and recently as the International Space Station (ISS). Each year, there are three and four Progress flights to the ISS. A Progress remains docked until shortly before being replaced with a new one or a Soyuz (which will use the same docking port). Then it is filled with waste, disconnected, and de-orbited, which burns up in the atmosphere. Due to the variation in Progress vehicles flown to the ISS, NASA uses its own nomenclature where “ISS 1P“ means the first Progress spacecraft to ISS. Progress was developed because of the need for constant supplies to make long-duration space missions possible. It was determined that cosmonauts needed an inflow of consumables (food, water, air, etc.), plus there was a need for maintenance items and scientific payloads that necessitated a dedicated cargo carrier. Such payloads were impractical to launch with passengers in the restricted space of a Soyuz. There have been 178 Progress flights (January 2024) with three failures. All three failures have occurred between 2011 and 2016.