A Russian cargo spaceship was launched on early Saturday to carry supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, according to the Mission Control outside Moscow.

 

The Progress cargo spaceship will dock with the ISS on May 15 to supply 2.5 tons of food, water, fuel and equipment, as well as letters and gifts from families, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

 

The Progress M-60 spacecraft blasted off from the Central Asian steppe in Kazakhstan at 07:25 AM Moscow time (0325 GMT).

 

It has entered a planned orbit and will rise to the ISS orbit at an altitude of about 340 km, the Interfax news agency quote President of the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation Nikolai Sevastyanov as saying.

 

The 15th ISS crew includes Russian cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchukhin and Oleg Kotov, who went aboard the ISS in April 9 and NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, who arrived there last December.

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2007)