Russia makes nice with NASA, starting with an 'express' space-bus to the International Space Station

Planet Express, eat your heart out.

A Russian cargo spaceship is scheduled to drop off a huge care package to the International Space Station later today. And by care package, I mean a shipment with three tons of food, fuel, and other supplies for the space station’s six residents: three Russian cosmonauts, two NASA astronauts, and one Japanese astronaut.

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The move comes days after NASA officially cut ties with the Russian space program amid tensions over the political situation in the Ukrainian region of Crimea. NASA, however, made an exception when it comes to the space station.

I’d imagine this decision was based on the practicality of the situation — meaning there aren’t many alternative options when it comes to shipping tons of freight to space. (So maybe there is hope for working together to escape the planet indefinitely.)

The spacecraft, Russian Progress 55, launched from Kazakhstan earlier today and is expected to dock with the station at 2:16 p.m. PT. The Progress ship has actually been making these “express” trips since 2012, ferrying both supplies and passengers to the station.

NASA is providing a live video stream of the cargo spaceship docking with the space station, which we’ve embedded below.

Via Space.com