Station Crew Unloads Cargo, Prepares for Shuttle Docking

As aeronautics technology continues to evolve, researchers from government agencies and companies around the globe are trying to answer these questions. Developing and testing technology for planes that produce significantly less noise and have a decreased environmental impact are two of NASA's key research goals.

Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Mikhail Kornienko continue to unload and inventory the 2.6 tons of food, fuel, oxygen, propellant and supplies delivered by the ISS Progress 37. It docked at 2:30 p.m. EDT Saturday, after Commander Oleg Kotov deftly guided the cargo craft to the Pirs docking compartment using TORU, the Russian telerobotically operated rendezvous system. The manually controlled TORU system was called into play when a jet failure on the Progress forced a shutdown of the Kurs automated rendezvous system.