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  Science   15 Jun 2017  Russia launches space freighter to ISS

Russia launches space freighter to ISS

AFP
Published : Jun 15, 2017, 8:19 am IST
Updated : Jun 15, 2017, 8:19 am IST

Russia has launched an unmanned Progress cargo ship carrying supplies to the International Space Station.

 Russia's Progress M-28M cargo ship blasts off from the launch pad at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 3, 2015
  Russia's Progress M-28M cargo ship blasts off from the launch pad at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on July 3, 2015

Russia on Wednesday launched an unmanned Progress cargo ship carrying supplies to the International Space Station (ISS) from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

"The Soyuz-2.1A booster rocket with the Progress MS-06 cargo ship launched successfully from Baikonur cosmodrome at 12:20 Moscow time (0920 GMT)," Russian space agency Roscosmos said in a statement on its website.

The cargo ship, carrying more than two tonnes of essential supplies including fuel, air and equipment and parcels for astronauts, is due to dock with the ISS on Friday at 1142 GMT.

The last successful launch of a Progress ship was in February, coming after a similar craft crashed back to Earth in December last year.

A commission appointed to investigate the malfunction concluded in January that it was caused by the break-up of the Soyuz third-stage rocket engine, either due to "foreign materials" getting inside or an "assembly fault".

Tags: international space station, cargo, space