MOSCOW, May 30. /TASS/. Russia’s Progress MS-27 resupply ship will be launched atop a Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan to deliver over 2.5 metric tons or cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).

The blastoff is scheduled for 12:42:59 p.m. Moscow time (9:42:59 a.m. GMT), and the spacecraft will reach the orbit approximately nine minutes later. The entire journey to the ISS will take 50 hours and 4 minutes. The docking with the Poisk module is scheduled for 2:47 p.m. (11:47 a.m. GMT) on Saturday, June 1. The spacecraft will remain docked with the station for 173 days.

The resupply ship will deliver 2,504 kg of cargo to the ISS, in particular, 1,290 kg of apparatus and equipment for the station’s systems, stowage for scientific experiments, clothing, food, medical and hygienic sets for the crew of the 71st long-term expedition, 754 kg of refueling propellant, 420 kg of potable water for cosmonauts and 40 kg of nitrogen to replenish the ISS atmosphere.

The Progress MS-27 resupply ship will also deliver birthday presents for cosmonauts: a T-shirt as a gift for the birthday of Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, who will celebrate his 42nd birthday aboard the orbital outpost on July 15, and a box of handmade chocolates for Oleg Kononenko (TASS special correspondent on the ISS), who will turn 60 on June 21.

The Progress MS is a Russian automated cargo spacecraft developed specially for servicing orbital stations. It is used to deliver various cargo to the orbital outpost (propellant, scientific equipment, oxygen, potable water, food and other items), and also to adjust its orbit.