Russian Cargo Ship Docks With International Space Station

Russian cargo ship docks with space station

MOSCOW, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) — The Russian cargo spacecraft Progress loaded with supplies and equipment successfully docked with the orbiting International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday, Itar-Tass news agency reported.

The Progress M-50, which blasted off from Russia’s Baikonour cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, automatically docked with the ISS at 9:01 a.m. Moscow time (0501 GMT) as scheduled, delivering 2.5 tons of cargo to the two crewmen aboard the space station, including fresh food, water, fuel and family letters.

The two crewmen, Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and US astronaut Michael Finke, have been working at the ISS since April 21 and are scheduled to finish their six-month expedition in October.

Russian spaceships have been the only links with the ISS since the Columbia space shuttle disaster on Feb. 1, 2003, which killed all seven crew members.

The Progress is the third Russian resupply craft sent this year.