Russian unmanned Progress spacecraft docked in less than 4 hours after launch to the space station, recording the fastest trip to the international space station in history.
The Progress 70 spacecraft loaded with food, fuel and other supplies, blasted off as scheduled aboard a Soyuz-2 rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:51 p.m and docked at the space station at 9:31 p.m.
NASA reported, the less-than-four-hour trip will demonstrate an expedited capability that may be used on future Russian cargo and crew launches.
Russian spacecraft are already faster than most others heading to the space station. Since 2013, Soyuz spacecraft have been ferrying astronauts and cosmonauts to the space station in less than six hours, following successful tests with unmanned Progress spacecraft.
This was the third attempt by the Russian space agency Roscosmos to make the trip at this speed, following just two orbits of Earth.
