On January 20, 1978, the Soviet space program launched the first ever Progress cargo ship on a mission to delivery supplies to the Salyut 6 space station.

Since then, more than 150 Progress spacecrafts have launched cargo to crews aboard the International Space Station as well as earlier, smaller space stations built by Russia and the Soviet Union. Progress 1 carried nearly 3,000 pounds of food, water, scientific equipment and spare parts to the two-person crew aboard Salyut 6. The cosmonauts unloaded the cargo—then filled the spacecraft with trash and sent it off to burn up in Earth's atmosphere.