Russian Progress M-20M Cargo Ship Docked with ISS

This image provided by NASA taken by one of the crew members aboard the International Space Station photographed this night view of storm clouds over Southern California July 21, 2013. 

Early morning lightning can be seen as a white blotch just to the right of center. 

The yellow colored area, beneath the grey clouds, which almost shines because of night lights, is part of the highly populated area of Los Angeles and San Diego. (AP Photo/NASA)

Russia's space agency says that its cargo ship has docked successfully with the International Space Station.

Roscosmos says the unmanned Progress M-20M spacecraft moored at the station Sunday about six hours after its launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The docking was performed in automatic mode.

The agency says the ship has delivered about 2.4 metric tons of supplies to the space outpost, including fuel, food, water and scientific equipment.

The 2011 retirement of the U.S. shuttle fleet has left Russia's Soyuz spacecraft as the sole means to ferry crews to and from the space outpost. The unmanned cargo version of the Soyuz, the Progress, delivers the bulk of station supplies.

ESA ATV-4: Mold Concerns Delay Space Station Cargo Ship's Opening

An Expedition 36 crew member captured this view of the interior of the Automated Transfer Vehicle-4 after the hatch was opened on Tuesday. CREDIT: NASA TV

The ATV-4 Albert Einstein, ESA's robotic cargo ship, was opened Tuesday morning (June 18) at the International Space Station, a day late because of concerns that mold may have grown inside the vehicle, NASA officials said.

The unmanned Einstein spacecraft docked at the space station Saturday (June 15), but it was not opened Monday as planned due to worries that the vehicle and its cargo had not been disinfected properly before launch.

The opening of the spacecraft's hatch was moved back a day to allow the space station partner nations to discuss the situation; ultimately, the partners agreed to have the station crew disinfect 21 bags of cargo on the spaceship to ensure they were clean of mold.

Whether or not any mold actually grew on the robotic spacecraft is unclear. The concerns may have arisen because Russian space agency officials were dissatisfied with the decontamination procedures European engineers took to prepare the vehicle for flight, a European Space Agency official told reporters.

Furthermore, the Russian concerns might have been focused on the documentation of the decontamination procedures rather than flaws in the procedures themselves, according to news reporters.

"It's a well-established principle of spaceflight safety that, under uncertainty, you don't 'assume the best,' you make sure the worst cannot be true," Oberg said, according to news reporters .

"And if you're not sure you decontaminated these items to rigorous standards, then you do it again, to make sure."



Tiny lifeforms aren't unheard of on the space station — in fact, they're often launched there on purpose for scientific experiments.

One study on the International Space Station between 2006 and 2008, for instance, found that Salmonella bacteria grown there in microgravity were more virulent than their counterparts on Earth.

The Albert Einstein spacecraft, also known as the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV)-4, is making the second-to-last of five unmanned cargo delivery flights to the station planned by the European Space Agency.

The spaceship, about the size of a London double-decker bus, was packed with food for the crew, science equipment and spare parts for the orbiting laboratory. It lifted off from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana June 5.

Like the other ATV ships, Albert Einstein is disposable; it will burn up on purpose in Earth's atmosphere after leaving the station.

Farewell to ESA's ATV-3 Edoardo Amaldi: Greetings to ATV-4 Albert Einstein

ATV Albert Einstein arriving by boat at Europe’s Spaceport, in Kourou, French Guiana on 19 September 2012.

It is scheduled for launch to the International Space Station in April 2013.

Credits: ESA/CNES/Arianespace/Optique Video du CSG

ESA's third Automated Transfer Vehicle Edoardo Amaldi undocked from the Space Station on 28 September and completed the final part of its six-month servicing mission to the Station by reentering the atmosphere on 3 October and burning up as planned over an uninhabited area of the southern Pacific ocean.

ATVs perform all manoeuvres, including docking autonomously, under close surveillance by their control centre in Toulouse, France run jointly by ESA and CNES.

ATV Edoardo Amaldi and the International Space Station firing their thrusters to boost the orbital outpost’s orbit. 

This shot was captured by ESA astronaut André Kuipers during his PromISSe mission.

ATV-3, Edoardo Amaldi docked with the Interntional Space Station on 29 March 2012 during André’s six-month PromISSe mission.

The cargo ship delivered 6596 kg of fuel, air, oxygen, scientific equipment, spare parts and crew supplies.

While docked, the ATV-3 performed nine reboosts to keep the Space Station in orbit, counteracting the effects of atmospheric drag.

Without reboosts by ATV and Russia’s Progress vehicles, the Station would eventually fall back to Earth.

On 22 August, ATV-3’s eighth boost lasted for 40 minutes (nearly half an orbit) and raised the Station to new heights – a record-breaking 405 x 427 km above Earth.

During the six months that ATV-3 spent at the Station, it provided 48 cubic metres of extra space for the astronauts. Before its departure, the crew loaded its pressurised module with waste material.

ESA's ATV-3 Edoardo Amaldi: Cargo Ship Leaves Space Station

The European Space Agency's ATV-3 Edoardo Amaldi supply ship is seen undocking from the International Space Station on Sept. 28, 2012, in this still image from a video camera on the station.

CREDIT: NASA TV

On Friday, the ATV-3 spacecraft, which is named the Edoardo Almadi after the famed late Italian physicist of the same name, made a flawless departure from the station.

It will spend the next few days orbiting Earth before being intentionally destroyed on Tuesday (Oct. 3) by burning up in Earth's atmosphereover the Pacific Ocean.

"Today, everything has worked to perfection," NASA spokesman Rob Navias said during the agency's live broadcast of the undocking.

The ATV-3 spacecraft was built by the European Space Agency and delivered 7.2 tons of food, water and other vital supplies to astronauts aboard the International Space Station when it launched in March from a South American spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

The ATV-3 spent 184 linked to the space station before being packed with trash and other unneeded items for its eventual fiery demise in Earth's atmosphere.