MOSCOW, December 5. /TASS/. Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos has no plans to reschedule the docking of its Progress MS-13 resupply ship with the International Space Station (ISS) over a delay with the launch of the US uncrewed Dragon spacecraft, the Roscosmos press office told TASS on Thursday.
"So far, the Progress spacecraft’s flight and docking are planned according to a three-day scheme," the press office said.
A source in the space industry earlier told TASS that the Progress space freighter would travel to the orbital outpost over two days and would stay in the stand-by mode for another day several kilometers from the station because NASA needed a back-up day for the US cargo craft’s docking.
Roscosmos later confirmed that the docking of the Russian cargo craft had been rescheduled due to the docking of the US Dragon space freighter.
The launch of the US Dragon resupply ship was initially scheduled for December 4 but its liftoff was delayed for a day due to weather.
The Progress MS-13 spacecraft will blast off aboard a Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:34 p.m. Moscow time on December 6. The resupply ship will deliver fuel, water and other cargoes for the space station’s operation. The Progress cargo craft is set to dock with the orbital outpost on December 9.