Christmas fare in space station

A RUSSIAN cosmonaut and US astronaut got some belated Christmas turkey along with vital supplies yesterday when an unmanned cargo ship docked at the international space station, ending shortages that had forced the crew to ration dwindling supplies. The Progress M-51 faultlessly docked at the orbiting station on Christmas Day.

The spaceship, which lifted off on Friday from the remote Baikonur cosmodrome in the steppes of Kazakhstan, delivered about 2.5 tons of equipment and supplies, including food for Russian cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and US astronaut Leroy Chiao, who are in their third month on the station.