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Russian cargo ship drops off spacesuit puncture repair kit at the ISS

Luckily someone was indoors to sign for Americans' package

A Russian cargoship docked with the International Space Station without a hitch this weekend, carrying nearly three metric tons of supplies for the crew.

Here's a video of the launch to the ISS:

The Progress 52 docked with the station's Pirs compartment 260 miles (418km) over the Pacific Ocean roughly six hours after it was launched, taking with it 1,212 pounds of propellant, 42 pounds of oxygen, 62 pounds of air, 926 pounds of water and 3,395 pounds of spare parts, maintenance equipment and experiment hardware. The unmanned craft also had on-board tools for making repairs to the US spacesuits on the ISS.

The freighter blasted off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, at 2045 GMT on Saturday on an accelerated four-orbit trip to the station.

Pirs was home to the Progress 50 craft for five months up to last Thursday - when it set off for a destructive reentry while filled with trash including an old astronaut treadmill. The Treadmill Vibration Isolation System, used by the 'nauts to stay fit during their time in the floating science lab, had been on the ISS since November 2000.

The station's other treadmill is called the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT) - named after TV comedian Stephen Colbert when he won a public voting poll - which blasted off to the ISS in 2009. ®

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