Russia launches Progress MS-26 cargo spaceship into orbit

MOSCOW -- A Russian Soyuz-2.1a rocket carrying the Progress MS-26 cargo spaceship blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and reached the designated orbit as planned, the Russian space corporation Roscosmos said on Thursday.

Roscosmos said that the MS-26 lifted off at 06:25 Moscow time (0325 GMT), reached its designated orbit, separated from the third stage of the rocket, and deployed its antennas and solar panels in a normal mode.

The docking of the Progress MS-26 to the Zvezda service module of the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) is scheduled for Saturday at 09:12 Moscow time (0612 GMT). The cargo ship will deliver 2,518 kg of supplies to the station.

Among the cargo, there are consumables for a new scientific experiment "Fullerene" on growing crystals of fullerite -- the third crystalline form of carbon, representing a new class of semiconductors.

For a new scientific experiment "Perspective-KM," a transformable space structure made of polymer composite materials with a shape memory effect was sent on the ship. The cosmonauts will install the structure on the small research module "Poisk" during a future spacewalk for its deployment and testing.

The Progress MS-26 also carried equipment for a new scientific experiment "Orbit-MG" with the aim of testing technologies for non-destructive control of the technical condition of sealed shells of piloted space objects of long-term operation.