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Russian cargo ship docks at International Space Station

Friday, 24 February 2017 10:52 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 24 February 2017 10:52 AM ]

This NASA handout illustration image obtained on February 23, 2017 shows the International Space Station. (Via AFP)

A Russian cargo ship has docked at the International Space Station (ISS), delivering supplies at the station.

Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, said the unmanned Progress freighter, carrying 2.5 tons of supplies, including air, food and fuel “successfully docked” at the orbiting station at 0830 GMT on Friday.

The ship had blasted off from Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz rocket on Wednesday.

This image, taken on November 12, 2016, shows a rocket from the Soyuz line installed as a monument at the Baikonur Cosmodrome spaceport in Kazakhstan. (By AFP)

It was the first mission from Roscomos to the ISS since the Progress 65 cargo ship was lost in a failed launch attempt on December 1, 2016.

On Thursday, a SpaceX Dragon capsule launched from US Cape Canaveral in Florida had arrived at the ISS.

The unmanned vessel also carried food for astronauts as well as space station repair gear and scientific equipment designed to monitor the Earth’s ozone layer, study lightning, and test out new automated navigation tools for a future satellite servicing mission.

There are three Russian, one French, and two American astronauts at the station.

This image, obtained on November 19, 2016, courtesy of NASA TV, shows the six astronauts on board the International Space Station. (Via AFP)

The next manned launch to the ISS is scheduled for April 20.

Russia is currently the only country sending manned space flights to the ISS.

The US stopped its manned space flights in 2011 after NASA’s Space Shuttle was retired after 30 years in service and Washington failed to fill in its place.

Russia’s manned space flights are carried out using Soyuz rockets.

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