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Russian Cargo Craft Docks at Space Station

Posted on: Saturday, 14 August 2004, 06:00 CDT

MOSCOW - A Russian cargo ship docked with the international space station Saturday, bringing food, water, fuel and other items to the two-man Russian-American crew, a space official said.

The Progress M-50 ship docked automatically with the orbiting station on schedule at 9:01 a.m. Moscow time, or 1:01 a.m. EDT, said Irina Manshilina, a spokeswoman at Russian mission control outside Moscow.

The ship had lifted off from Russia's Baikonour cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday. The trip to the station normally takes two days, but Russian space agency officials had said the cargo ship would take 24 hours longer than usual as part of an experiment to try to save fuel.

In addition to food, water and fuel for the station, the Progress was also was carrying magazines and DVDs for the crewmen, Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and American astronaut Michael Fincke.

Padalka and Fincke arrived in April for a six-month stint at the station, whose assembly has been on hold since the U.S. space shuttle Columbia disaster in February 2003. NASA officials say they hope to resume shuttle flights next spring.

Russia and the United States agreed to split the costs of sending men and material to the space station, but only Russian spacecraft have been used since the shuttle disaster. The Progress is the third Russian resupply ship sent this year.

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