On April 22, 2017, the American "Cygnus” (CRS OA--7 “John Glenn”) private unmanned supply spacecraft was docked to the International Space Station (ISS). The Cygnus spacecraft was grappled by a robotic arm operated by astronauts inside the space station at 10:05 UTC. The cargo spacecraft was docked to the station’s "Unity” module at 12:39 UTC. The spacecraft delivered about 3300 kilograms of supplies to the Space Station. It was the 7th docking of a "Cygnus” spacecraft with the ISS.

On April 22, 2017 at 04:16 UTC the Chinese “Tianzhou-1” unmanned supply spacecraft docked to the Chinese “Tiangong-2” space station. The unmanned supply spacecraft will pump propellants into the “Tiangong-2” space station, which launched last year and hosted two astronauts for a month-long stay in October and November. The refueling experiment will validate key technologies China needs to build and maintain a much larger orbital complex starting as soon as next year.

On April 20, 2017 at 13:19 UTC the Russian "Soyuz MS-04” spacecraft docked with the Russian “Poisk” (MIM-2) module of the International Space Station.

The spacecraft delivered 2 new members of Expedition 51 to the ISS, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and American astronaut Jack Fisher. The new comers joined current ISS expedition members – Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet and American astronaut Peggy Whitson.

On April 20, 2017 at 11:40 UTC the Chang Zheng-7 (Long March-7) rocket-carrier was launched from Wenchang Satellite Launch Center (WSLC), located in Wenchang on Hainan Island off China’s southern coastline.

The rocket orbited the “Tianzhou-1” unmanned supply spacecraft. The “Tianzhou-1” (Chinese: 天舟一号) is the test mission of the Tianzhou-class unmanned cargo spacecraft. It is developed as part of the manned space program of China. Tianzhou means "heavenly vessel" in Chinese. The spacecraft is to dock with the Chinese “Tiangong-2” space station to conduct several months of robot ... Read more »

On April 20, 2017 at 07:13 UTC the Russian “Soyuz MS-04” spacecraft was launched from Baykonur Cosmodrome. The space vehicle was orbited by the Russian “Soyuz-FG” rocket-carrier. The spacecraft is piloted by 2 cosmonauts: Commander, Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin (left) and American astronaut Jack Fisher (right).

Photo by Russian Cosmonaut training center.

The space vehicle is to dock with the International Space Station at the same day, on April 20. Yurchikhin and Fisher will join current ISS expedition members Novitskiy, Pesquet and Whitson.