Carrying more than three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the International Space Station crew, the unpiloted ISS Progress 63 cargo craft launched at 12:23 p.m. EDT (10:23 p.m. local time in Baikonur) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
At the time of launch, the International Space Station was flying about 251 miles up over northeast Iraq.
Less than 9 minutes after launch, the resupply ship reached preliminary orbit and deployed its solar arrays and navigational antennas as planned. The Russian cargo craft will make 34 orbits of Earth during the next two days before docking to the orbiting laboratory at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 2.
Beginning at 1:15 p.m. on Saturday, NASA Television will provide live coverage of Progress 63’s arrival to the space station’s aft port of the Zvezda Service Module.
Watch live on NASA TV and online at: https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv
To join the online conversation about the International Space Station and Progress 63 on Twitter, follow @Space_Station and the hashtag #ISScargo.