Supplies include all those goods needed to provide life support for the personnel and to operate and maintain the stations. Regular deliveries are required of consumables such as fuel, water, food, oxygen and spare parts.

Most stations are also working research stations requiring specific equipment and the transport of experiment materials from and to the Earth.

The U.S. Space Shuttle was large enough to carry personnel and large amounts of supplies, however all other personnel transport spacecraft could only carry small amounts of cargo. This was sufficient for the earlier short duration missions. As mission durations increased, dedicated cargo only craft were required for re-supply.

The following spacecraft have been used for station re-supply.

The Progress spacecraft is designed to only carry cargo. It uses a Soviet/Russian Soyuz launcher to reach orbit and its own engines to rendezvous and dock with the station. It can be docked automatically or by remote control.

Progress spacecraft have been used to carry cargo to the Soviet/Russian Soviet/Russian Salyut, Mir and International Space Station (ISS). Upgraded versions are currently used to supply the ISS.

Progress craft are not re-used and are destroyed by de-orbiting and re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.

The U.S. Space Shuttle is the crewed component of the U.S. Space Transport System, or STS, which includes the Shuttle, large external fuel tank and two solid rocket boosters. The Shuttle was designed for personnel and cargo, including large station components. It used its own engines and the booster rockets to launch and its own engines for rendezvous, docking and de-orbiting to return to Earth.

Shuttles have supported the Soviet/Russian Mir station and were used extensively to build and support the International Space Station (ISS).

On a number of re-supply missions Shuttles carried a
Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM) to the ISS. MPLMs are pressurised cargo module which carried equipment, supplies, laboratory racks and experiments for the station.

After the shuttle docked to the station the MPLM is lifted from the cargo bay using the shuttle's or the station's robot arm and connected to a station berthing port. The MPLM is then unloaded directly into the station and re-loaded with waste and items to be returned to Earth. MPLM's are returned in the Shuttle's cargo bay.

The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), originally Ariane Transfer Vehicle, was an expendable cargo spacecraft developed by the European Space Agency (ESA). It could carry three times the cargo of the Russian Progress cargo spacecraft to the ISS.

The ATV was used only for cargo transport to the International Space Station (ISS). It was able to dock automatically with the station and could use its engines for station re-boost.

There were five ATV flights to the station, between 2008 and 2014, all launched by the Ariane 5 heavy-lift launch vehicles. ATV craft are not re-used and are destroyed by de-orbiting and re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.