Russian cargo ship heads for space station

An unmanned Russian cargo ship carrying supplies and Christmas gifts for the crew of the international space station blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan today, a Russian space agency spokesman said.

The Progress M-55 was launched at 21:39 pm (6.39pm Irish time) and was expected to enter orbit about nine minutes later after jettisoning three booster sections, said a duty officer with the Federal Space Agency.

In addition to some 2.5 metric tons of food, water, books, DVDs and scientific equipment, the ship is also bringing cosmonaut Valery Tokarev and astronaut William McArthur chocolates, two red holiday caps and gifts from their families.

The ship is expected to dock with the station orbiting at about 220 miles above the Earth late on Friday.

McArthur and Tokarev are in the third month of their six-month mission aboard the space station.

Russia’s Progress cargo ships and Soyuz space capsules have been the station’s lifeline since the US space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003.

The shuttle programme was suspended for more than two years; the shuttle Discovery flew to the station in July, but problems with its insulation raised doubts about when the next shuttle would go into space.

Later today, Russia was due to launch a rocket carrying military and communications satellites into orbit from its northern Plesetsk cosmodrome.