SPACE.com: Progress 38, a Russian robotic cargo ship filled with supplies for the International Space Station, took off Wednesday, 30 June, from Kazakhstan, and docked successfully on Sunday, 4 July, two days later than planned. The Progress series of spacecraft, which have operated since 1978, originally supplied Soviet space stations, but now make about 3â4 trips per year to the ISS. The expendable unmanned craft carries tons of supplies for the astronauts, including fresh food, clothes, and equipment. After it has been unloaded of cargo and reloaded with trash, it undocks and maneuvers into an orbit that will take it into Earth’s atmosphere, where it will burn up.
