Russia's Progress 63 resupply craft launches to space station - Watch online!

The unpiloted cargo spacecraft is carrying three tons of food, fuel and supplies for the Expedition 47 crew.

Image credit: NASA TV

New Delhi: Russia on Thursday night launched its cargo spacecraft, Progress 63P, to the International Space Station (ISS) atop a Soyuz rocket.

Known to Roscosmos as Progress MS-2, the unpiloted cargo spacecraft lifted off atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket at 12:23 p.m. EDT (10:23 p.m. Baikonur time, 9:53 p.m. India time) Thursday, March 31, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The #Progress 63 cargo craft launches at 12:23p ET/4:23p UTC. Will arrive at station Saturday at 2 p ET/6p UTC. https://t.co/CXPpN46fXL

— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) March 31, 2016

The Progress MS-2/63P carrying three tons of food, fuel and supplies for the Expedition 47 crew will be the first of three Russian resupply efforts to the space station this year and the second immediate resupply mission to the ISS in two weeks following the Orbital ATK Cygnus launch.

Progress, which is scheduled to dock to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module at 2 p.m. EDT on Saturday, April 2, will spend more than six months at the station before departing in mid-October for its deorbit into the Earth’s atmosphere.

(Source: NASA)