It also carries water, fuel, and gases to replenish the station's resources and sustain its onboard atmosphere.

Beyond resupply duties, a docked Progress can maneuver or reboost the station, countering atmospheric drag and maintaining its operational altitude.

When a Progress spacecraft nears the end of its design life, it is loaded with waste, undocked, and deorbited to safely disintegrate in Earth's atmosphere.

It consists of three distinct sections:[1] The Progress spacecraft’s uncrewed and disposable design enables significant weight reduction.

After completing its mission, the spacecraft undocks, performs a controlled retrofire, and burns up upon reentry into Earth's atmosphere.

In addition, three custom Progress M variants were launched to deliver ISS modules Pirs in 2001, Poisk in 2009 and Prichal in 2021.

In addition to the traditional Progress-M spacecraft, three modified "space tug" versions were built to deliver modules to the ISS.

Between 1 February 2003 and 26 July 2005, they were the only spacecraft available to transport large quantities of supplies to the station, as the Space Shuttle fleet was grounded after the breakup of Columbia at the end of STS-107.

Progress M-UM, the final flight of a Progress-M spacecraft, was launched 24 November 2021 on a Soyuz 2.1b.

On 9 July 2018, Progress MS-09 broke a previous record by reaching the ISS in 3 hours and 48 minutes, carrying about 2,450 kg (5,400 lb) of cargo and supplies.

The European Space Agency (ESA) operated its own type of robotic supply freighter, the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV).

ATVs can carry up to 8.85 tonnes of cargo into space, roughly three times as much as the Progress, and were launched annually by Ariane 5 rockets from 2011-2014 as part of ESA contribution to ISS upkeep.

NASA's planned Orion spacecraft was initially designed to have an uncrewed variant of the Crew module similar to Progress; however, this capability was removed in 2009.