A few days after a rather unique pad abort, the Progress MS-07 supply craft successfully launched today for it’s rendezvous and docking with the International Space Station.
As mentioned, the vehicle was delayed in launching following the abort the other day. Incidentally, that launch was timed for a very fast (read, about 3 hours) rendezvous and docking time frame. Today’s launch opportunity has this vehicle set on a 2 day, standard rendezvous and docking procedure. It would have been pretty awesome, though, had the launch the other day succeed, to have such a quick time from launch to docking, something that really, as far as I can recall, hasn’t been done since the 90 minute or less / on the first orbit dockings during the Gemini program.
That being said, it doesn’t change that the vehicle is on its way safely, having been launched on the Soyuz 2-1A booster variant. Another R-7 derived booster which means we of course get the wonderful Korolev cross effect on staging, as well as some beautiful footage of the initial liftoff.
Enjoy!